Statin researchers want to reset the clock and erase the decade that revealed this drug’s grave dangers

British invasion

With all due respect to my friends across the Pond, I hope that what happens in England says in England. But it very likely won’t.

Last week, The BBC broke the news about a serious health crisis. The National Health Service devotes close to 10% of its budget to care for diabetics. And yet, less than half of all diabetics receive minimum care. Simply put, many lives are in danger.

I can only think of one thing that could make this situation worse. It would be a disaster if someone tried to give nearly everyone a drug that increases diabetes risk.

But that would be ridiculous. Right?

Well…the ridiculous made a grand entrance just days after that BBC report. But it goes WAY beyond ridiculous. It’s more like completely bat house insane.

Seriously. This is a nightmare. And don’t think it couldn’t happen here. With these mad dogs on the loose, it could happen anywhere.

Drugging the healthy

Did you like 2002? If so, you might enjoy a new study in the Lancet that sets statin research back 10 years. At least.

It was conducted by researchers at the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration (CTT). Since the mid-90s, this team has tracked statin research. Their funding comes from deep mainstream sources, so you can imagine the results.

CTT researchers examined 22 statin trials. The conclusion: Prescribe statins to everyone, age 50 and over. Yes, even for those whose risk is very low.

Two words come to mind: completely moronic.

The CTT team focused on a very small set of numbers to come up with this paradigm. If five million healthy people take the drug for 10 years, 2,000 lives will be saved.

That not only ignores all other health issues, it even ignores other HEART health issues.

Moronic ideas require absurd sales pitches. So one of the researchers came up with a lulu. He told the BBC, “Whatever your level of risk, the benefits greatly exceed any known hazard.”

That’s the comment that reminded me of 2002. Ten years ago, nine out of 10 doctors would have agreed with that statement. But in 2012, I’m tempted to call it a blatant lie.

Today, among statin drugs’ known hazards, we put diabetes risk near the top of the list. Risk of muscle damage and related kidney failure is right up there as well. Cognitive decline and cataract risk increases too. So the idea of giving this drug to millions of low risk people is almost criminal.

Meanwhile, the CTT estimate of benefits is outrageously overblown.

For a reality check, let’s look at one of my favorite websites. It’s Number Needed to Treat (thennt.com). The doctors that run this site have no agenda. They crunch the numbers and let the chips fall where they may.

One of the NNT categories is statin drugs given for five years to patients without known heart disease. Their results…

• 98% had no benefit
• No lives were “saved”
• 1.5% developed diabetes
• 10% developed muscle damage

And here’s the kicker. Sources for this analysis include a study from — yep — the CTT.

This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered an insane plan to treat millions of healthy people with statins. But it’s the first time we’ve heard it since type 2 diabetes emerged as a likely danger.

Warn your friends in England. Warn them in the U.S. too. A statin drug is a time bomb of adverse effects.

Sources:
“The effects of lowering LDL cholesterol with statin therapy in people at low risk of vascular disease: meta-analysis of individual data from 27 randomised trials” The Lancet, Published online ahead of print, 5/17/12, thelancet.com
“NHS ‘should consider giving statins to healthy people'” James Gallagher, BBC News, 5/16/12, bbc.co.uk
“Diabetes care provision ‘crisis’ in England” BBC News, 5/13/12, bbc.co.u