According to recent research, the benefits of statin drugs are highly overrated, and the 13 million Americans using them may get little, if any, benefit.
Although statins can be life-saving for those who have high cholesterol and have already had heart attacks, recent studies show no reduction in deaths for people over the age of 65 – regardless of how much the drug lowered their cholesterol – and no benefit at all for women of any age!
Even though Americans are bombarded with ads touting the benefits of statins, close study of drug company ads tell a different tale. In small print, an ad for Lipitor stated that ‘in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor.” The trial lasted over three years, meaning that for every one hundred people taking Lipitor for at least three years, only one person avoided having a heart attack. The other 99 got no benefit. Other studies have indicated that as many as 250 patients would need to be treated in order to benefit one person.
Statins cause side effects in 10 % to 15 % of users that include diarrhea, muscle pain, cognitive impairment and sexual dysfunction, and they cost about $1,000 a year.
“Most people are taking something with no change of benefit and a risk of harm,” says Dr. James M. Wright, a professor at the University of British Columbia and director of Canada’s Therapeutics Initiative, an organization which examines the data on drugs and decides how well they work.
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