ARE you taking statins? Should you take them? Some doctors want everyone over 50 to take them, even if they have no signs of heart disease whatsoever. Others, among them Scottish GP Dr Malcolm Kendrick (author of The Great Cholesterol Con), say that’s just madness.
University of Cape Town emeritus professor Tim Noakes calls statins “the single most ineffective drug ever invented”. Statins are the most prescribed and most profitable drug in medical history. Here’s what doctors say about that and ‘new-generation’ statins lurking in the wings.
By Marika Sboros
Welcome to “statin insanity” – the extraordinary world of blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drugs: Statins have always been clever at their job of lowering cholesterol. The only problem is lowering cholesterol isn’t always a smart thing to do. It can be harmful. The experts say your body needs cholesterol, both “good” and “bad”. It makes no sense to talk about cholesterol as good or bad because you’d die without it.
Research shows that statins may even cause heart disease. They also up your risk of diabetes, a Parkinson’s, kidney failure, liver problems, cataracts and more.
So why do doctors want you to take them?
Drug makers introduced cholesterol-lowering drugs in 1987 for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). That is, for patients who have had a heart attack or stroke, or with established CVD.
Millions around the world take statins. Some doctors say the drugs have saved lives and prevented millions of heart attacks and strokes.
Others say doctors say these drugs don’t actually work well at all. They don’t agree with the current push for statins for primary prevention of CVD. They say that’s just “statin insanity”.
The push comes in revised US guidelines the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC) introduced in late 2013. The guidelines dropped the 10-year CVD risk threshold to treat from 10% to 7.5%. In the UK in 2014, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued guidelines dropping the risk to 10%.
In the US alone, at least about 25 million people take statins. Guidelines could mean 10 million more on statins (some say the figure is closer to 30 million) including children. In Britain, around 8 million people are on statins. If doctors follow NICE guidelines, another 5 million will be taking the drugs.
That’s an awful lot of people on statins, And an awful lot of money going into the coffers of drug makers that have already made billions.
Doctors opposed to statins for primary prevention say:
- It medicalises healthy people;
- Data on benefits are from industry-funded studies;
- Researchers have suppressed risk data;
- 50% to 75% of people with “normal cholesterol” have a heart attack;
- Lifestyle causes 80% of CVD;
- Higher cholesterol is associated with longevity in the elderly; and
- Pharmaceutical companies unduly influence doctors.
Collins has said doctors are dangerously misleading and misinforming the public about risks versus benefits of statins. He believes this creates potential for “large numbers of unnecessary deaths from heart attacks and strokes”.
I emailed Collins asking him to elaborate further on his views statins. He declined. That’s probably not surprising, given the withering critique on him in HealthInsight UK. In it, award-winning health and medical journalist Jerome Burne criticises Collins for concluding that statins are perfectly safe. That’s despite having “no data other than what the drug companies had published”. Burne rightly calls that “a suspect source of information”. (Some of Burne’s comments would be funny were they not so serious in intent.)
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