But even rare side effects can be important when drugs are aggressively used. In 2007 Karas published a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggesting that the risk of complications increases with statin dose. If more people start taking statins and at higher doses, many more people will experience problems. “It’s one thing to treat a person who’s had a heart attack with a statin drug for five or 10 years, because their likelihood of a vascular event is very high. It’s another thing to take 35-year-olds who have high cholesterol and treat them for 30 years,” Muldoon says. “That’s a whole different argument to make and justify.”
Karas points out that he is not against broader statin treatment. He simply believes that guidelines should reflect existing data. And even if the results of JUPITER do not apply to truly healthy people, that does not mean they are not relevant. “There’s a sizable proportion of the American adult population that has a risk factor profile that’s similar to JUPITER,” Karas says. “If you look out across the U.S., it’s not a very healthy population.”
This article was originally published with the title Static over Statins.
Already a Digital subscriber? Sign-in Now
If your institution has site license access, enter here.
See what we're tweeting about
8 Comments
Add CommentHow interesting that drug companies select people for studies that will prove their point. Who ever sees the studies that are negative? Many doctors believe that inflammation as seen by high C-reactive protein levels in the test subjects is a contributing, if not primary cause of arterial problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur medical costs will continue to increase out of control until we stop drug companies from staging tests to sell expensive drugs with dramatic side effects.
When will we ever tackle the real health issue - life style changes?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder how many are like me that Lipitor almost killed!! It gave me fibromialgia like symptoms of server muscle pain and weakness that made me bed ridden. I now realize that happen to my mother too who was diagnosed with 'fibromialgia'. I stop against my doctors orders and I got better in 2 weeks.
I switched to Zocor and after 6 months became deeply depressed. Stopped it and got better fast and no problem since.
Cholesterol is an important big part of your brain and most cells so easily can affect many parts of your body.
What they don't tell you is aspirin, fish oil, Tumeric/curry as is exersise, good eating habits are each about as good at preventing heart attacks as satins are with far less side effects, costs.
If we had universal health care a computer program could with everyone's records find out most of this stuff and tell us what works and what don't. Plus tell us when drug companies are lying which is about whenever they open their mouths. Their record speaks for itself.
It is like keeping people at edge and then offering solution of your choice. Keep public pumping that you may not get heart problems if you start taking statins; majority will start taking it. Keep public frightened about terror attacks and suggest passing laws which will take away all your freedom; majority will agree with that. Thats how 3% of people in the world decide how life of 97% public should be lived and then impose upon it. Whether it is lobbyists and media working for pharma or war industry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Antonio Gotto:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Antonio Gotto, M.D., Dean, Weill Cornell University Medical College, New York City. Co-author on Intensive lipid lowering with atorvastatin in patients with stable coronary disease, which was **sponsored by Pfizer**.
Received consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Novartis, and Reliant and lecture fees from Pfizer, Merck, Schering-Plough, AstraZeneca, and Reliant. Testified before the Food and Drug Administration on behalf of Johnson & Johnson-Merck. (N Engl J Med. 2005;352. E-pub ahead of print.)
"Consulting fees" and "sponsored by" are euphemisms for "on the payroll." which every grade six science student knows, but seems not to be evident to the reporter who re-arranged the press release on this one.
As usual the relative percentages have been quoted here - this is very misleading.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe trial found that rosuvastatin reduced the risk of cardiovascular events by 44 percent as compared with placebo.
In fact, the drug rosuvastatin only reduced serious cardiac events by less than 1 percent (0.9 percent). This is the absolute percentage. AstraZeneca issued a press release after the JUPITER trial detailing the relative percentage of 44 percent which grossly exaggerates the benefits. The relative percentage has been copied by the media and circulated all over the world. It is time that this was corrected. Visit www.29billion.com for more details&
One problem with the JUPITER trial.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen reading tables 3 and 4 in the original JUPITER article it is observed
that in the rosuvastatin group 31 got a myocardial infarction (MI) and 22
survivors of the MI which means nine deaths out of 31 MI, i.e. a mortality
rate of 9/31=29 % mortality of the treatment group with an MI.
It is observed that in the placebo group 68 got an MI and 62 survivors which
means six deaths out of 68 MI, i.e. a mortality rate of 6/68=8.8 % mortality
of the placebo group with an MI.
It is observed that in the treatment group nine deaths out of 142 that reach
the primary endpoint (PE) which means a mortality rate of 9/142= 6.3 %
mortality of the treatment group with a PE.
It is observed that in the placebo group six deaths out of 251 that reach
the PE which means a mortality rate of 6/251= 2.3 % mortality of the placebo
group with a PE.
Who would take rosuvastatin?
Also, statins are mevalonate inhibitors. Mevalonate is the source not only of cholesterol but also of Coenzyme Q10, dolichols, prenylated proteins. All molecules that are essential to us.
Who would ever take statins?
Suggest you read and learn from articles such as this one:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn an article entitled Needs to Change the Direction of Cholesterol-Related Medication A Problem of Great Urgency, published in November 2005, Japanese researcher H. Okuyama reported his findings based upon the data available in the medical literature. He concluded, . . . reducing the intake of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol and increasing that of polyunsaturated fatty acid are ineffective in reducing total cholesterol in the long run, but rather increase mortality rates from coronary heart disease and all causes . . . high total cholesterol is not positively associated with high coronary heart disease mortality rates among general populations more than 40-50 years of age.
More importantly, higher total cholesterol values are associated with lower cancer and all-cause mortality rates among these populations . . . Although the effectiveness of statins in preventing coronary heart disease has been accepted in Western countries, little benefit seems to result from efforts to limit dietary cholesterol intake or to lower TC values to less than approximately 260 mg/dl among the general population and the elderly . . . (These measures) create major risk factors for CHD, cancers, and shorter longevity.
Based on the data reviewed here, it is urgent to change the direction of current cholesterol-related medication for the prevention of CHD, cancer, and all-cause mortality.
this and others can be read at
http://just-me-in-t-health.blogspot.com/
Maybe people can try some nutrient diet for their disease?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscoz I deeply beilieve in our country's medicine too much(chinese)
I found that the drug problem is the same as in my home, lots of new, expensive drugs are produced but it seems does work very well. While people here forget the magic power of our country's medicine. natural herb medicine with regular lifestyle,balanced food diet.