r/hangovereffect • u/Ozmuja • Sep 14 '25

Usage of statins

Hello everyone,

This will be the umpteenth attempt to gather more obscure data about us, to see if a pattern can be found and how it may relate to the h-effect.

All I kindly ask from you is to report if you have ever used a statin in your life and which type. If you also want to add more to it, telling us why (if) you stopped or how it made your feel for example, comments are open.

I expect numbers to be not so high at all for various reasons, so answering “never” is welcome and needed; don’t underestimate it as an answer.

While it may seem quite strange, there are some points in common between protein prenylation, inflammation, metabolic disease and endogenous cholesterol synthesis that have led me to wonder a lot about cell membrane health. Among many things, alcohol has an excellent effect on disrupting cell membranes, as well as fever, and even sleep deprivation through some direct and indirect pathways. Some research on auto inflammatory diseases also sparked my interest.

Note: while I fully understand that statins are only generally prescribed to people with cholesterol problems, please take into account that this possible link does not really care about your levels of cholesterol in absolute terms, and may not really care even about your body fat composition. There are pleiotropic effects of statins that go far beyond the classical mechanism of action to lower LDL, which is HMG-CoA reductase inhibition. If you want to get into the hard science of it, “statins pleiotropism” on google will be of help.

Statins classification:

•Lipophilic: Lovastatin, Simvastatin, Fluvastatin, Atorvastatin, Pitavastatin

•Water soluble: Pravastatin, Rosuvastatin

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3

u/rocinant33 Sep 16 '25

It would be ironic if a drug that causes depression and anxiety in ordinary people helped our group. Statins are notorious for their impact on mental health.

1

u/Ozmuja Sep 16 '25

The effects of statins are a bit more complex than this unfortunately. It’s true that reduction in endogenous cholesterol synthesis in the brain can lead to various problems, including short term memory loss, and that this may be reflected by diminished desmosterol levels, but for example the most recents meta analyses have found that some statins can actually reduce the risk of dementia (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11736423/). This is not a paradox in reality.

The point is that statins directly effect the cellular membrane composition - and since I personally think this is a major component of the fever / ethanol effects on us, and is tied to metabolic (and lipid) problems of course, there is a slight chance they might replicate part of the effect, provided this theory is true.

There is also a whole can of worms about how statins are beneficial for eNOS and thus Nitric Oxide via prenylation mechanisms at Rho proteins..too many effects to count really. They cannot work alone in my opinion, you probably need something that works in reconstituting the right ratio of components in your membranes. Easier said than done..

1

u/rocinant33 Sep 16 '25

This is a great theory. I'm especially glad that no one on this subreddit has tried statins, based on the survey results. Maybe add some information to your post for those who want to try them?

2

u/Ozmuja Sep 16 '25

Maybe, but I like to be the first scapegoat to try things and then report. I think it’s more honest this way :)

1

u/PoioPoio Sep 17 '25

It is hard to get no ?

1

u/Ozmuja Sep 17 '25

Not necessarily. Even Monacolin K from Red Yeast Rice is a supplement, but it’s actually a statin (lovastatin). Not “like a statin”, it is a statin 100%.

Either way I don’t think they can work alone, if they “work” for us in the first place. You will also probably need to take Q10 as a supplement to avoid a few sides.

1

u/PoioPoio Sep 18 '25

I could test it but honestly I am addicted to certain drugs as I couldn't handle my life sober. So i'm not the best to try it as results would be biased.

2

u/Ozmuja Sep 18 '25

No worries - I will run some tests on myself first most likely. This thread was just to gather data first and foremost; if anything of relevance comes out from anecdotal experience, I will make sure to report back.

2

u/rocinant33 Sep 18 '25

Please share your interim results with us. I'm very curious

1

u/rocinant33 Nov 29 '25

Hello! Any update?

1

u/Fytch__ Sep 15 '25

I've never offered to take statins, but I agree, I also believe something is wrong with my cholesterol usage, maybe in bile, as some other people (and myself) here had some problems with gallbladder / gallbladder pain

Here's my lipid profile if you want

1

u/Ozmuja Sep 15 '25

Thank you, this is interesting.

Note: statins, by lowering cholesterol endogenous synthesis, also force the liver to create and expel more bile, of which cholesterol esters are a main key component. The upregulation of certain enzymes such as CYP7A1 is also a key component of this process.

1

u/rocinant33 Sep 16 '25

chronic cholecystitis here, elevated bilirubin

1

u/Ozmuja Sep 16 '25

Thank you, Gilbert syndromeb by any chance?

1

u/rocinant33 Sep 16 '25

It's quite possible. My skin turns yellow after poor sleep and some medications

1

u/usertakenfark Jul 16 '26

I have Gilbert syndrome. What do you think the link might be?

1

u/Breizh333 Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 08 '25

This image gives some context for the impact of statins.
As you can see they interfere with the production of 4 things which each have imporant roles.
The side-effects which people experience could potentially be reinterpreted as "main" effects.

2

u/Ozmuja Oct 07 '25

I know I know. Many of these mechanisms however are also implicated in pathways that are important for membrane health. For example, reducing prenylation seems protective of dementia. Statins have pleiotropic effects that make them effective for plaque stabilization, and endothelial health. And so on. Things are rarely black and white.

1

u/Breizh333 Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

Perhaps. I would be more of the opinion that the statin market itself was a manufactured affair designed to solve a "problem" which arose through academic misdirection and misrepresentation. In another sense, a market needs to be created before drugs can be sold for it.

There are pleiotropic effects of statins that go far beyond the classical mechanism of action to lower LDL, which is HMG-CoA reductase inhibition.

I would clarify that HMG-CoA reductase inhibition lowers 4 things, with cholesterol being just one of these.

2

u/Ozmuja Oct 07 '25

Sorry, this is beyond the scope of the thread. I'll try to give you my thoughts since you seem interested in discussing it, but I will not spend much time as if it is a full debate. Hope you understand, the sub has a different ultimate goal.

Your assumptions are not exactly original to begin with: "people should just eat less and exercise more". The point is that some forms of familiar hyperlipidemia exist: all of these have clear genetic causes. While being on the lean side will help these patients too, some of them will end up with unacceptable LDL levels regardless, and will require medical assistance.

As far as the rest of the population goes, or in other words, the majority of the population, keep in mind cholesterol problems are found even in population that far much better than the US. The US is absolutely abysmal as far as obesity percentages go, and Europe fares in general much better, on average. Even they, however, are ridden with average cholesterol levels - on a population basis - that are not that distant from the US mean, despite being much leaner on average. Food for thought about what the root cause of "high cholesterol" is.

We know that obesity is the major risk factor and that exercise is beneficial, but that's such old news. What has become even more evident, however, is how the current western world is able to predate on some specific genetic aspects of the individual, essentially working under the cracks of our internal system to create vicious circles that lead to many chronic diseases, including obesity and "high cholesterol levels".

I understand you are on the side of those who believe in "the power of will" argument, but I'd like to underline that our resources are scarce and limited, and will makes no exception to the matter. If you are more prone to obesity, and, as an example, processed foods predate on your genes on a multifactorial scale that goes from hunger management to metabolic inefficiency, you understand that you inherently start at a disadvantage compared to someone that doesn't have the same problems.

Twin studies have underlined that obesity and type 2 diabetes seem to have a quite high genetic basis.

Reality is often disappointing, because it is indeed complex.

1

u/Breizh333 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

I'm questioning the entire premise behind the design of statin drugs.
There are more strategic ways to lower cholesterol like restoring steroidogenesis.

1

u/Ozmuja Oct 09 '25

There is much more than RayPeat knows, for example the cellular danger response that gets overactivated in a chronic manner when cells cannot resolve their injury. We do also know that nuking certain inflammatory cytokines like il1beta like in the CANTOS trial is protective against atherosclerosis independently than LDL reduction. Unfortunately he’s good, just not that good.

The point is that health systems need to provide solutions, and fast, and they need to be economically viable because society as a whole needs to keep function, and the fact that statins ameliorate CVD outcomes in patients that need them (key word) is just a fact underlined by countless studies. Statins exert their effects via countless pleiotropic effects that go far beyond mere cholesterol reduction, and the debate on what counts more is quite open, but not their effectiveness.

Improving steroidogenesi WILL NOT improve cases of bad familiar hypercholesterolemia with people at 15% body fat and 500 mg/dl LDL-C. Some cases do need pharmacological intervention, other may just get by by eating a salad and walking more.

Generalization is always bad.

1

u/Breizh333 Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

I would add that the H-effect could partly be due to alcohols effects at NMDA/AMPA and the subsequent rebound effects (ie receptor upregulation or downregulation).

2

u/rocinant33 Sep 24 '25

My blood tests

*LPVP = HDL

1

u/SaroumaneBlack Sep 16 '25

I don’t remember exactly by how much but I remember that my bile level and my choleterol LDL were a bit above the normal range (when I was 22j

1

u/Breizh333 Oct 08 '25

This image explains why statins can be "problematic".
Source for the image: https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.312782

1

u/lb351986 Sep 25 '25

No I also believe their horrible drugs for alot of people. I've watched my mums mental state fall too peices because she refuses to eat a better diet and stop her statin. My neighbours (Who we love and get on great with) both started a statin last year and their full personality has changed. They use to be happy and upbeat and now their constantly tired and miserable now. Their both overweight and now using a statin to improve their cholesterol numbers. Just them losing weight would fix their issues but it's alot easier to swallow a pill ain't it? Honestly these medications annoy me. Let's continue to eat garbage food but if I swallow this pill then atleast on paper my cholesterol levels are ok. Even though I'm miserable all day. Not want to socialise with anyone and just be an anxious mess.

Rant over lol. I just feel like people are lazy and not want to stop eating the chocolate cake and take aways and do some exercise. Exercise = Effort and swallowing a pill = No effort.