The risks of taking cholesterol-busting statins outweigh the benefits for millions of patients, according to a study.
Researchers designed a computer model to compare the likelihood of side effects with that of dying among people taking the cheap daily pills.
Whether patients are eligible for statins, proven to save thousands of lives, depends on their risk of heart attack or stroke.
But the Swiss study found the possible harms of the drug outweigh the benefits until someone's risk is 'considerably higher' than the current threshold.
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My cholesterol was always high, very high, until I was convinced by my doctor to try statins, after diet control failed to change the numbers. I've had no adverse effects from taking the statins. My doctor recommended them to me originally due to my family's history of heart disease, even though I have not suffered a heart attack, or stroke...yet. My doctor must know something (that I have no doubt) as both of my grandfather's were dead of heart disease before they got to the age I am today. My father lived to be in his eighties with the help of statins, blood pressure medicines, and heart surgery in his late 70's. Used to be, people just died of heart disease in "old age." Old age was 60 back then. Now we live to be eighty, or more, with the benefit of modern medicines, that we now ague about whether to take, or not. Go figure.
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