Originally Posted by mrsD

Some statins are more lipophilic (soluble in fat) than others.

Simvastatin is one of those. But all statins, are implicated in the side effects profiles. Simvastatin was chosen for the early trials for MSers, with the thought it would enter the brain, and help there. This was totally a failure, and the studies were stopped.

All statins block the enzyme in the liver that makes CoQ-10.

It is your choice. But if you don't stop the statin you will never know if your PN is because of it.

Given the tiny percentages of benefit that are now being quoted for them, I don't see people remaining on them once the push from the drug reps ends. Almost everything doctors and patients know about these drugs was Big Pharma driven until just recently.

Originally Posted by mrsD

You will have to look around the web, for your answers.

I will say this, there have been failures with most of the interventions for heart disease. Diet... The original Ornish diet was really big at one time, Dean Ornish, had 10 cardiovascular patients he put on his very vegan restrictive low fat diet. This diet was the cat's meow. It was heavily promoted.
And they started to die. Now he recommends a modification of that with flax oil and some salmon.

Heart disease is multifactorial. Inflammation, high C-reactive protein, high homocysteine, are just some of the other high risk factors. These inflame the insides of arteries, which then start to collect cholesterol as a patch. This will continue even if your cholesterol is low as is recommended. In fact there are studies showing elderly people die faster with lowered cholesterol.


This is Dr. Kendrick, again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SSCNaaDcE
You can find other older videos there with elaborate but unproven theories of how lowering cholesterol protects against heart disease.
On YouTube is a multi part video of a lecture Dr. Kendrick gave in Leeds, Britain: part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPYaVcXo1I

I've been reading for over 10 yrs and have watched this drama change and go on and on. The subject is very huge today, and there is no short cut to answer your question. Some doctors are very concerned about statins, and you'll have to spend some time reading them and their opinions, in order to decide for yourself.
There is no guarantee your statin will protect you from further heart disease. There is no guarantee that low cholesterol will protect you. People with low cholesterol have heart attacks too.
There are studies showing low cholesterol levels increase non-cardiac mortality:
from 2000:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10870365

more from 2008:
http://www.wellnessresources.com/hea...nd_death_risk/
(BTW Vytorin in the article contains simvastatin + Zetia)

Dr. Golomb MD is one to read to answer your questions.
She specializes in geriatric medicine.

Your situation is complex. And with 2 heart attacks behind you, I can understand your concern. It boils down to benefit vs risk in the final analysis. I could spend days, searching for you. I have already spent YEARS doing so. But in the end you will have to do more homework before deciding.