Bad fats and bad facts: the rise of statins
Worldwide sales of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are set to hit $1 trillion next year—but two new studies question whether they are fit for purpose. In other words, can some of the world’s best-selling drugs actually do what they’re designed to do, and reduce levels of the ‘bad’ LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol that is supposed to clog arteries and cause coronary heart disease (CHD)?
Statins fail to lower LDL cholesterol by any meaningful level in more than half of the patients taking the drug, the first study has discovered. After two years, 51.2 percent of patients hadn’t seen their levels fall by the 40 percent target set by medical guidelines.1
Researchers from Nottingham University analyzed data from 165,400 patients who didn’t have CHD but were considered at risk. The drugs were effective in some patients—so why didn’t they work in the
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