Bad news about Statins

I want to share an email I received from Dr. Chaney, a respected professer and researcher.

As we begin Heart Health month it is perhaps fitting to turn our attention to the latest news about every cardiologist's favorite heart drug - statins.

And the latest news about statins isn't good.

A recent Cochrane Systemic Review of statins, released January 19th, 2011, stated that there was not enough scientific evidence to recommend the use of statins in people with no previous history of heart disease.

They concluded by saying: "Caution should be taken in prescribing statins for primary prevention among people at low cardiovascular risk".

To help you understand the significance of that conclusion, let me give you a bit of background.

First you need to understand that the Cochrane Collaboration is an independent, non-profit organization that carefully reviews the scientific evidence behind medical treatments and proposed medical treatments.

Cochrane Reviews are considered the "Holy Grail" of evidence-based medicine (ie. medicine based on the best scientific evidence rather than what the pharmaceutical companies would have you believe).

So when a Cochrane Review concludes that there isn't enough evidence to recommend use of statins in patients with no prior history of heart disease that is pretty big news in the medical world.

And it is big news because it goes against current practice. As I have mentioned in the past, many of my cardiologist colleagues are so convinced of the value of statin drugs in preventing heart disease that they have, only half jokingly, said that statins should just be put in the water supply.

In today's world statin drugs are almost always prescribed for people with elevated cholesterol - and for many people who don't even have elevated cholesterol.

It will be very interesting to see the extent to which this pattern changes in the years to come.

However, I should make two important points in closing.

1) The evidence is quite strong that statin drugs do save lives when used by people who already have heart disease.

2) The Cochrane Review also stated that there are a number of factors that need to be considered in evaluating individual patients for statin use.

Simply put, that means that it is not as simple as saying that everyone with no previous history of heart disease should not be on statin drugs.

So if you are currently taking statin drugs and you have no previous history of heart disease, you may want to discuss with your physician whether the Cochrane Review of statin drugs changes their opinion of whether use of those drugs is still warranted for you.

But you do need to understand that only your physician is trained to take into account all of the factors that increase your risk of heart disease, and the best therapeutic approach for reducing your risk of heart attack.

To Your Health!
Dr. Stephen G Chaney