Statin Review Shows Their Negative Side Effects Outweigh The Positive

The use of statins to combat high cholesterol has been shown to be more harmful than pharmaceutical companies have previously disclosed. The side effects of statins were examined in a major research review published in the Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology journal, by two specialists in the field. Dr. David M. Diamond, a professor of psychology, molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida, and Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, an independent health researcher and an expert in cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, say that the risks of statin use are far greater than their benefits.

“Overall, our goal in this review is to explain how the war on cholesterol has been fought by advocates that have used statistical deception to create the appearance that statins are wonder drugs, when the reality is that their trivial benefit is more than offset by their adverse effects.”

Commonly prescribed to help prevent heart attacks, statins do lower cholesterol but according to Diamond and Ravnskov they fail to significantly improve cardiovascular health. The pair analysed data from several statin trials, discovering that supposed claims that statins reduce strokes, heart attacks and other heart-related fatalities have been greatly “exaggerated.”

“Statin advocates have used statistical deception to create the illusion that statins are ‘wonder drugs,’ when the reality is that their modest benefits are more than offset by their adverse effects.”For example, the trial researchers take the 1% of the population who would benefit from the statin and combine that with another statistic so it appears that 30-50% of people an be helped by them. Which is entirely untrue based on the raw data.

Previous studies have shown that statins can cause up to 300 serious health risks. The authors of this latest article found that while the drugs do dramatically decrease cholesterol levels – which is now no longer seen as necessary – they increase “rates of cancer, cataracts, diabetes, cognitive impairments and musculoskeletal disorders.” These issues “more than offset the modest cardiovascular benefits of statin treatment.”