Statin drugs

The results of another study that used 10,000 ALLHAT participants was also reported in JAMA last month. Over a period of four years, that study compared the use of a statin drug to “usual care” (maintaining proper body weight, no smoking, regular exercise, etc.) in treating subjects with moderately high levels of LDL cholesterol.

Don’t worry – I’m going to spare you my usual rant about the dubious choice of using statin drugs to lower cholesterol. But because of the importance of this long study with many subjects, the results are particularly noteworthy.

Of those in the group that received statin drugs, 28% lowered their LDL cholesterol significantly. In the “usual care” group, about 11% had a similar drop in LDL. More importantly, however, both groups showed the same rates of death, heart attack and heart disease.

So the statin group lowered its LDL more than twice as effectively as the “usual care” group, but didn’t experience any fewer heart attacks than the “usual care” group.

Given the impressive length of this study and the number of participants, the results are not what you’d call a ringing endorsement for lowering cholesterol with statin drugs. Especially when they carry unpleasant side effects, but are only “significantly” effective in about one in four people.

I better stop now – I feel a rant coming on.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute