Heart expert: Don’t listen to online quacks

A LEADING heart specialist has warned against an ‘online cult of misinformation’ that risks lives by persuading patients that statins are dangerous.

Dr Steven Nissen attacked the ‘pseudoscience’ of sites claiming the drugs are risky while pushing the supposed benefits of fad diets and untested supplements.

He said a Google search for ‘statins risks’ returned 3.53 million results while ‘statins benefits’ brought up only 655,000. Writing in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, Dr Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic in the USA, said: ‘Statins have developed a bad reputation with the public, a phenomenon driven largely by proliferation on the internet of bizarre and unscientific but seemingly persuasive criticism.

‘We are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of our patients to websites developed by people with little or no scientific expertise.’

Patients could be ‘easily seduced’ into thinking heart disease could be cured by ‘wonder diets’ or supplements.

Dr Nissen said doctors must take the time to explain to patients that quitting statins could be a life-threatening mistake.

‘Passive acceptance of harmful pseudoscience is not an option,’ he said.