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You don’t need to fall far down the Reddit rabbit hole to get some real feelings on statins. “Statins are…hated by everyone I know who takes them.…” reads one post. Or Instagram: “Big pharma wants statins to be your forever fix,” an MD writes. On TikTok, a chiropractor argues that the common cholesterol-reducing medications can make you sick.
Bad. Dangerous. Ineffective. A conspiracy to make you stay on the meds forever. It’s a lot of loathing aimed at a class of drugs that’s been used for nearly 40 years as a first-line treatment for high cholesterol. Yet here we are: currently social media cool to hate on statins.
Statin hate is not a completely new phenom, but the latest influencer-led iteration is. In 2017, an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine called statin denial “an Internet-driven cult.” The reputation-ruining rumors started with the “proliferation on the Internet of bizarre and unscientific but seemingly persuasive criticism of these drugs,” wrote the author, a preventive cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic. In its place, people pushed “natural” remedies like dietary supplements.
Then user-generated content began to enter the chat. “There is clearly more statin skepticism online,” says Los Angeles–based preventive cardiologist Danielle Belardo, MD. She points to an analysis of more than 10,000 statin-related Reddit discussions. Statin chatter increased by 33 percent each year between 2009 and 2022, with major themes including statin hesitancy, adverse effects, pharmacology industry bias, and supplements to take instead, according to the study, published in JAMA Network Open. About 31 percent of the sentiments were negative, while 67 percent were neutral. Some of the messaging: “So take a statin to decrease CVD risk…but increase Alzheimer’s risk? What a mess!” and “Statins are poison. It’s a myth made up by the pharma industry obviously to make more $$$.”
Anti-statin posts on Twitter/X have also increased over a 12-year period, according to a 2024 analysis in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Initially, it was bots driving most of the misinformation, the authors found, but now actual humans are more likely to be expressing the med mistrust. (That bots were the primary source at first is not all that surprising when you consider that they tend to be used to push health misinformation for a variety of reasons, including promoting other products for financial gain.)
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“The myths are the usual nonsense: false claims that statins inevitably cause muscle damage, memory loss, depression, sleep problems, weight gain, or that ‘natural substitutes’ are safer and more effective,” says Dr. Belardo. Adding fuel to the fire: “There has been a large false claim on social that statins are ineffective in women, which is simply false, truly dangerous, and can cause harm to many women,” she says.
Whether made by humans or bots posing as them online, these assertions impact our behavior. “In one study, women were more than 24 percent more likely [than men] not to accept an initial statin therapy recommendation and 51 percent more likely never to start,” says Dr. Belardo. This was true even for those at high risk for heart disease, and avoiding statins when they were needed was associated with higher LDL cholesterol, leaving many people vulnerable to heart attacks.
“Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women and men. It’s been the leading cause of death in our country for over 100 years,” says Seth Martin, MD, MHS, a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Advanced Lipid Disorders Program. Cholesterol-lowering medications, including statins, are central to helping prevent heart disease.
This is especially pertinent for women, says Laxmi Mehta, MD, section director of preventative cardiology and women’s cardiovascular health at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. “Women are generally undertreated with cardiovascular medications,” she says. Women are less likely than men to be prescribed a statin when they need one or to receive the guideline-recommended dose; they’re also more likely to stop treatment because of a side effect compared to men, research has found.
In addition, if you spend years pregnant or breastfeeding, times when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration recommends that most women not take a statin, you can possibly have a very large gap in care. “Women might not be appropriately treated for high cholesterol for many years, and years of exposure to LDL cholesterol in the blood impacts long-term heart health,” Dr. Mehta says. “The lack of personalized and comprehensive care is a disservice to women.”
Your Body on Statins
First, let’s talk science. Statins are a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs. Cholesterol is a waxy substance that your liver makes, and you can also get some (known as dietary cholesterol) by eating animal products like meat and dairy. Dietary cholesterol itself doesn’t raise LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol much in most people; instead, a diet high in saturated fat does, according to the American Heart Association. (Animal products like eggs and shrimp contain cholesterol, but—as long as they’re not fried—they’re low in sat fat.)
Some cholesterol is a good thing, aiding your body in building cells and making hormones, but too much elevates your risk for heart disease and stroke. Over time, having excess LDL cholesterol in your blood results in the formation of plaque in your artery walls, leading to narrowing or a blockage that stymies blood flow—or stops it altogether.
Statins decrease the amount of cholesterol the liver makes and give it a hand in removing “bad” LDL cholesterol from the body.
That’s where statins come in. These medications decrease the amount of cholesterol the liver makes and give it a hand in removing “bad” LDL cholesterol from the body. Additionally, statins help “stabilize” plaque, meaning they help lower the risk of rupture, flicking off an artery wall, and traveling, causing a blood clot. A physician prescribes a statin based on your cholesterol levels, health history, risk factors, and lifestyle habits. Statins are often the go-to drug because they’re inexpensive, effective, and widely covered by insurance.
Cardiologists also continue to prescribe statins because, for most people, they are safe and have a lower risk of side effects than is often portrayed online. “We have a mountain of evidence around statins,” says Dr. Martin. Taking a moderate dose of a statin has been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol by 30 to 50 percent, per a 2025 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. This result is similar for men and women. If all the adults who needed a cholesterol-lowering drug took one, we’d have almost 100,000 fewer heart attacks and 65,000 fewer strokes each year in the U.S. And yet just over half of the people who need a statin are taking one.
Risk vs. Reward Reality
Part of the fear around popping these pills is based on their perceived risks, including how they might make you feel. “I have some patients who flat-out refuse to take statins because they’re afraid of the side effects,” says cardiologist Joyce Oen-Hsiao, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine. She points to a few that patients express the most concern about: an increased risk of diabetes, memory issues, and muscle aches. To be clear, we shouldn’t dismiss concerns about side effects—they can and do happen, as no medication is entirely risk-free—but social media (the source for much of the current patient worry about statins) leans into exaggeration, ignores the big picture, or cherry-picks research.
It’s important to understand the true impact of statins and the likelihood that anything bad will happen to you. Take diabetes concerns, for starters: “Some studies show that some, but not all, statins will cause elevated blood sugar,” says Dr. Oen-Hsiao. “On the flip side, the American Diabetes Association says the benefits of lowering cardiovascular risks outweigh the elevated blood sugar you might get from statins.” (Diabetes doubles your risk of heart disease, and your risk may be even greater if you don’t take statins.)
Having a family history of dementia could raise an alarm among potential statin users partly because of an FDA label change in 2012 that included a warning about possible vulnerability to dementia or memory problems in those who take the meds. (The concern is that the brain needs cholesterol, so lowering blood levels might sap the noggin of this crucial substance.) Dr. Martin has conducted research on this very topic, finding that the best-quality studies show that statins used in the short term don’t commonly cause memory loss. And in the long term? They may actually have a beneficial effect on the brain—yes, the exact opposite of what some people believe.
“If you need a statin, it’s important to understand that not taking it out of fear will increase your risk for an earlier heart attack and stroke.” —Joyce Oen-Hsiao, MD
Muscle aches are the most common side effect reported. However, in a meta-analysis of 19 trials, muscle pain or weakness was reported by just 1 percent more people taking a statin than by those in the placebo group, with this side effect being more prominent during the first year of statin therapy. The researchers also found that more than 90 percent of the reports of muscle symptoms had nothing to do with the statin at all.
“If you need a statin, it’s important to understand that not taking it out of fear will increase your risk for an earlier heart attack and stroke,” says Dr. Oen-Hsiao. “We’re seeing younger women having heart attacks in their 30s and 40s and strokes in their 40s and 50s.”
Cardiologists recommend speaking to your doctor about your concerns; if you take a statin and feel worse in some way, tell them. Your doctor can change your dose, switch you to a different statin, or even recommend a non-statin cholesterol-lowering drug.
No matter your current age, high cholesterol isn’t just a problem for future you. It’s a problem for today you. The longer high cholesterol is allowed to linger, the more plaque accumulates to stiffen and narrow your arteries. Each decade in early adulthood that you live with high cholesterol, your risk of heart disease jumps 39 percent, according to research. “The best way to help patients is to intervene before plaque deposits in the arteries,” says Dr. Oen-Hsiao. And that’s where new lifesaving guidelines come in.
When It’s Time (or Not) for Statins
Doctors fight pseudoscience with facts—or at least they try to. That’s why some of the biggest news in the cholesterol world broke recently when the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Cardiology teamed up to release updated guidelines on managing cholesterol and other lipids. (Dr. Martin and Dr. Mehta were among the authors of these guidelines.)
The new advice may affect when—and if—you’re treated. Just like high blood pressure, high cholesterol is a silent condition: You may not know if you have it, and you’re not immune just because you appear healthy, eat well, and exercise. “I always like to tell patients that half of your cholesterol comes from what you eat and half from your genes,” says Dr. Oen-Hsiao. “There’s this genetic component that you don’t see, so even if you are exercising and eating healthy, you may be predisposed to high cholesterol if it runs in your family. It’s something you can’t necessarily fight on your own.”
Having high LDL cholesterol (over 160 mg/dL) has been found to kill even “healthy” people.
So here’s what to do, based on the new guidelines: Get your cholesterol checked—and treated, if necessary—starting at age 30, not 40, as previous protocols advised. Early intervention prevents the buildup of plaque. Even if you’re long past that 30-and-flirty threshold, ask your doctor for a blood test to check your lipids. That test should include total cholesterol, LDL, HDL (“good” cholesterol), and triglycerides.
The new guidelines also add lipoprotein(a) (a measure of how “sticky” your cholesterol is; this is genetic, so it’s recommended that you get it checked at least once) and apolipoprotein B (a measure of all the harmful, plaque-forming lipoprotein particles in your blood) to the needed lab work. If it’s unclear based on your results whether your cholesterol should be treated and you’re over 45, your doctor might consider a coronary artery calcium scan (which measures how much calcified plaque, or buildup, is in your arteries).
The results of all these tests, plus your personal and family history, will help your doctor determine the best treatment if you have high cholesterol. Can you start with lifestyle changes to try to bring your numbers down and retest later to see if they did the trick? Do you need a statin now? What dose is appropriate? Generally, younger women would start on a moderate dose, says Dr. Martin, but those with a genetic inherited condition called familial hypercholesterolemia may need a higher dose.
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And that brings us around to the concept of shared decision-making: Your doctor isn’t putting you on a statin; instead, you’re talking this through together, weighing the pros and cons, discussing what lifestyle adjustments you’re willing to make, and understanding your own personal risk for heart disease before starting a medication. That appointment is a good time to talk about any fears you have, what happens if you have side effects, and how you and your doctor can evaluate what “success” looks like on the med. “For me, it’s truly a partnership with patients,” says Dr. Oen-Hsiao. “My job as a cardiologist is to bring down your cardiovascular disease risk.”
This doesn’t discount the importance of lifestyle changes, which are the foundation of cholesterol control. Dr. Mehta usually advises patients to do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise) per week, follow a balanced diet, avoid using tobacco or vape, get seven to nine hours of sleep per night, and maintain a healthy blood pressure, blood sugar level, and weight. The diet piece is major: The American Heart Association’s new guidelines recommend eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, healthy (lean) proteins, whole grains, and unsaturated fats, as well as minimizing the intake of added sugars, reducing sodium, choosing minimally processed foods, and limiting or avoiding alcohol.
Statins may or may not be part of the equation, but one thing is front and center: High cholesterol needs to be taken seriously—and it needs to be treated. “This does not mean ‘put every 30-year-old woman on a statin,’ ” Dr. Belardo clarifies. “It means some women whose risk used to be underrecognized may need to be identified earlier and treated earlier.”
When you do need them? “Statins can be truly lifesaving,” says Dr. Belardo. “The real problem is that women have historically been undertreated and undertargeted despite strong evidence that statins help lower LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol, which helps reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.”
Bottom line: Let social media influence your opinions on some things (whether skinny jeans are cool or cringe, if glitter makeup really is making a comeback, why it’s okay to still do zone 2 cardio), but let’s keep influencers out of our doctor’s appointments. Your heart will truly love you for that.