Landmark Statin Drug Study

The big news in the paper today was a "landmark study" on cholesterol lowering statin drugs, namely Crestor. This study supposedly proved that even people without signs of heart disease should take a statin drug to prevent heart attack. Not because it lowers cholesterol, (we now know about 60% of heart attacks occur in people with normal or low cholesterol), but that it helps reduce inflamation and this prevents heart attack. Next they quoted a 20% reduction in death. The article also stated that, well, you'd have to put 120 people on this drug for 2 years to prevent one heart attack.

Let's think about that for a minute.... The people already had no signs of heart disease, but yet it helped prevent heart attack. Who actually funded this study? Well, come to find out it was Crestor, the company that makes the drug and wants to sell it to everyone. Drug companies don't quote total mortality data, if so, it would probably be less than 1 %. So where does that 20% come from? They usually only quote relative risk data on preventing heart attack, and not only that, they don't quote the difference between the placebo group and the group who took the drug. So 20% sounds totally exaggerated and if you do the math on 120 people and only 1 heart attack was prevented, that's less than 1 %, right?

It's preventing death that most people care about. Statin drugs have never shown to prevent death to any significant degree (total mortality), but how can this be? Studies have shown all statin drugs cause cancer in laboritory animals, and at prescription doses. If you doctor wants you to take this drug, first I'd do some homework on the side effects of statin drugs. Next, I'd tell him to take a class on how to read drug study data and learn what it really means.

Think I'm making this up? Read these articles:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Ellison/shane17.htm

http://www.ti.ubc.ca/pages/letter48.htm

http://www.theheart.org/article/823819.do

http://www.newswithviews.com/Ellison/shane14.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/31/healthscience/fishoil31.php

Conclusion - Statin drugs do not reduce mortality significantly when used for primary or secondary prevention. Fish oil is actully more effective to protect your heart after a heart attack. Statins may cause cancer in humans at prescription doses.

Robert Conroy
Wishing Wellness Massage
http://www.wishingwellnessmassage.com/