It could mean four in 10 adults, including most of those in late middle age, are put on regular doses in a move that “medicalises” healthy people, leaving them at risk of side-effects including diabetes and memory loss.
Medical experts are angry that doctors are being offered incentives to prescribe the drugs by a government watchdog, which they say is of “doubtful benefit and may cause harm”.
Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says GPs should get financial incentives to prescribe statins to patients with high blood pressure even if they only have a low risk of developing heart disease over the next 10 years.
Yet many heart specialists say that for a large number of patients the benefits do not outweigh the risks, which include diabetes, cataracts, debilitating muscle pains, memory loss and fatigue.
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