A prominent medical authority this past week announced his prediction that 50% of the entire US population could be taking statin medication. He cites the following reasons for these cholesterol-lowering drugs becoming so prevalent that virtually every medicine cabinet in the country will be stocked with it:
They are supposedly tremendously effective
They are claimed to be completely safe at the recommended dosages
Several statins may soon be available without a prescription
Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., dean and medical provost of Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York, told a press conference that he favored this class of drugs for all men aged more than 45 and women aged 55 plus who had a total cholesterol of more than 200 mg/dL, an HDL cholesterol of less than 50 mg/dL and one other risk factor for coronary heart disease.
12th International Symposium on Atherosclerosis, June 2000 Stockholm, Sweden
It is not surprising that the traditional medical model will be promoting drugs to solve this problem. The big issue here is that these potent medications will be over the counter in the near future with a massive PR campaign to encourage people to swallow these potentially dangerous drugs.
There are likely to be some people who benefit from them, but it is probably far less than 5% of the people who currently take them. These are individuals with total cholesterol above 350 who have inherited liver processing problems.
If these individuals take the statin drugs however, they should also take Coenzyme Q 10, which is important for heart health and, like cholesterol, is reduced when one takes these drugs. The proper way for nearly everyone else to control their cholesterol levels is by reducing their grain intake by following the healthy eating plan I recommend.
Another problem is the fact that low cholesterol is associated with numerous problems, as you can see from some of the studies below.
There have also been many studies showing adverse effects of statin medications. Aside from impairing brain function (see below), they have also been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals, according to report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 1996; 275: 55-60).
In this study, the authors state "lipid-lowering drug treatment, especially with the fibrates and statins, should be avoided except in patients at high short-term risk of coronary heart disease."
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