Eat an apple a day and keep statins at bay

STATINS do more harm than good and people would be better off eating an apple a day to prevent heart attacks and strokes, health experts have argued.

In a debate in the BMC Medicine Journal, Dr Aseem Malhotra, a consultant cardiologist, and Prof Simon Capewell, of Liverpool University, argued that the cholesterol-busting drugs had debilitating side effects while having little impact on health for most people.

They claim that industry sponsored studies did not back up real-world data, which show up to half of patients give up taking statins within a year and 62 per cent of those said it was because of muscle pain and fatigue.

They suggested that more should be done to encourage people to eat more healthily and exercise. Although they help people who already have heart disease, they claim there is little evidence to show they are useful for the general public.

Dr Malhotra, of Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey, said: “For those at low risk, an apple a day has an equivalent risk reduction for [a heart attack] as taking a statin.

“More than 80 per cent of cardiovascular disease is attributable to environmental factors, notably unhealthy diet and also smoking, alcohol and physical inactivity.”

Britain is already the “statins capital” of Europe — with the second highest prescribing levels in the Western world, amid spiralling obesity and aggressive prescribing of the medication by GPs, whose pay is linked to takeup of the pills.

The drugs are the most commonly prescribed medication in Britain, costing the NHS £450 million a year.

Under revised NHS guidance the majority of men aged over 60, and women over 65, are offered the drugs, even if they only have a one in 10 chance of developing cardiovascular disease within 10 years.

But Prof Capwell argued that the guidelines condemned middle-aged adults to lifelong medications of questionable value.