Statins: Facts & fiction
BRITAIN is becoming a statin island, with seven million people now taking the controversial drug in a bid to lower cholesterol and reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke.
But new research claims tens of thousands of people may be dying because they are too afraid to take statins due to exaggerated claims about their side effects.
These can include muscle pain, insomnia and memory loss.
But the study, published in The Lancet, suggests that patients may experience the side effects simply because they expect to, and not because of the statins themselves.
The study found when people were kept in the dark over which drugs they were on, they were no more likely to report symptoms, such as muscle pain, sleep disturbance and cognitive impairment, than those given sugar pills.
But those told the drugs were statins reported more side effects, with muscle pain appearing up to 41% more common. Lead researcher Professor Peter Sever, from Imperial College London, says: “Tens of thousands of people are dying because they are choosing not to take statins for fear of sideeffects that don’t exist.” And yet, after years of conflicting reports about statins, most of us remain confused about whether to take them or not.
Here, we try to separate the facts from fiction about the controversial cholesterol-buster…
Making your mind up
The case for statins: Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, says: “Statins are an important and proven treatment for preventing coronary heart disease.
“Their use has been clouded by the perception that they cause significant side effects – causing a drop in their uptake, which is particularly dangerous for those at high risk of heart attack or stroke.
“However, symptoms such as fatigue and muscle weakness are common in the general population for a whole variety of reasons.
“And, as this study shows, when patients take a statin and develop similar symptoms they understandably wrongly attribute them to the statin when it’s often not the cause. This new study provides further evidence and confidence that statins are a generally safe drug for people at risk of heart disease. The benefits far outweigh any side effects for most people.”
The case against: Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra says: “As a responsible cardiologist, I do prescribe statins to people at high risk of heart disease, but I have not seen any convincing data that statins are helpful for those patients at lower risk. Previous research has found that more than half of patients on statins abandoned them within a year, most commonly because of side-effects.
“I believe the misrepresentation of the risks and benefits of statins will be one of the biggest scandals in the history of medicine.”
What the current guidelines say
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
CONTROVERSIAL The statin pills Who needs statins? Who they definitely help... Who the jury’s out on...
Men or women who have previously had a heart attack – research clearly shows there is a significant reduction in death rates for survivors who are given statins
Men or women deemed at high risk of a heart attack in the next 10 years – studies show statins prevent 80,000 heart attacks and strokes in this group every year.
Men and women at low risk of heart disease – there’s little or no evidence statins will be of benefit recommends that statins should be prescribed to patients with a 10% or higher risk of having a heart attack in the next 10 years.
To work this out, GPs use a special calculation which takes into account factors, including your age, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, whether you have diabetes, and your family history of heart disease. for this group, despite previous calls for the drug to be given to everyone over the age of 40.
Who they could potentially harm…
People at high risk from diabetes, but low risk of heart disease. In this case, the downsides of statins may outweigh the benefits, as they have been found to carry around a 9% increased risk of developing diabetes.
Prof Samani says: “This is only a very small group, as the overlap between heart disease risk and diabetes risk means they often go hand in hand. The small increased risk of diabetes in a person also at a high heart disease risk should not prevent them from taking statins as they cut heart attack risk by one third.”