Do you take any medications? Or supplements? I do. Perhaps supplements is a post for another time, but I do want to mention something on medication. I take a nasal steroid spray, and have done daily for about 12 years. Truth be told I really should have been on it lifelong, as I have had troublesome nasal polyps. By troublesome, I mean I have had 4 surgeries to remove them (first one aged 11!), and I can tell you it isn’t pleasant. The pain is pretty extraordinary, particularly the one when I bled afterwards. The last operation was 12 years ago, and that was the point when I decided enough was enough and I would have the medicine. So far so good, no more operations as yet.
Why do I mention this? The term doctors use to assess whether patients take medications as prescribed is compliance. I had 0% until 12 years ago, and I would say now 99%. And that’s to prevent some polyps in my nose! At the European Society of Cardiology I learnt about a few interesting statistics. In one published study of over 600,000 patients (yes that’s 600,000 I didn’t add a 0!) with atherosclerotic heart disease (furring up of the heart arteries), 50% weren’t taking a statin. The factors that meant people were more likely to be on a high-dose statin were male gender, age <56, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and a visit to a cardiologist. Conversely women, age>45, peripheral artery disease and additional co-morbidities all were associated with less statin use.
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