Proposal to Extend Statin Use Should Be ‘Scrapped’, Experts Say
Recently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published draft guidance calling to extend statin use to save more lives. However, experts say such proposal should be scrapped.
Statins are a group of medicines that can help lower rates of so-called "bad cholesterol" in the blood by curbing the production of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the liver. High rates of LDL are potentially dangerous as they can lead to hardening and narrowing of the arteries, known as atherosclerosis, which increases the risks of strokes and heart attacks. Doctors prescribe statins to people at risk of heart disease, taking into account factors like smoking habits, age and weight. Under current guidelines, if someone has a 10-year QRisk2 score of 20%, then in a crowd of 100 people like them, on average, 20 people would get cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years. But the draft guidance suggested that people with as low as a 10% risk should be offered the treatment.
In a letter to NICE and ministers, a group of leading experts and academics expressed concern about the medicalisation of healthy people. It said the draft advice was overly reliant on industry-sponsored trials, which "grossly underestimate adverse effects".
"The benefits in a low-risk population do not justify putting approximately five million more people on drugs that will then have to be taken lifelong." experts wrote. The signatories include Royal College of Physicians president Sir Richard Thompson and former Royal College of GPs chairwoman Clare Gerada as well as cardiologists and leading academics.
‘Deeply Worrying’
One of the signatories, Prof Simon Capewell, an expert in clinical epidemiology at Liverpool University, said the recent statin recommendations are ‘deeply worrying’ and condemns all middle-aged adults to lifelong medications of questionable value.
Currently, doctors are meant to offer statin tablets to the estimated seven million people who have a 20% chance of developing cardiovascular disease over 10 years, based on risk factors such as their age, sex, whether they smoke and what they weigh.
"They steal huge funds from a cash-strapped NHS and they steal attention from the major responsibilities that government and food industry have to promote healthier life choices for ourselves and our children." Capewell added.
Like all medicines, statins have potential side-effects. They have been linked to muscle, liver and kidney problems, but just how common these are is a contentious issue. Apart from taking prescription medications, eating a healthy diet, doing regular exercise and keeping slim will also help lower cholesterol.
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Scrap plan to extend statin use, say doctors
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