Critical Thinking Essay
Statins for High Cholesterol
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and people with higher cholesterol are at higher risk for heart attacks. There's good evidence that people who already have heart disease benefit from cholesterol-lowering medications, or statins. Among those people, statin treatment reduces risk of heart attack and may prolong life.
Despite research that has included tens of thousands of people, there is no evidence that taking statins prolongs life, although cholesterol levels do decrease. Using the most optimistic projections, for every 100 healthy people who take statins for five years, one or two will avoid a heart attack. One will develop diabetes. But, on average, there is no evidence that the group taking statins will live any longer than those who don't. Some argue that clinical trials of statin use among healthy people haven't demonstrated a reduced mortality rate because each individual trial only follows patients for a few years, not long enough to show a reduction in mortality. Many doctors, including me, believe that we need clinical trials that actually follow healthy people treated with statins for the long term to see if treatment really results in lower mortality. Statin proponents think such trials would be prohibitively expensive. That's a disappointing stance, considering the billions that have already been spent on statin prescriptions and advertising. Another well-publicized study that showed good short-term results among healthy people taking statins, the Jupiter trial, remains controversial. Some statin supporters argue that even if the data don't support the benefits of statins in healthy people, they might help and can't hurt. But that's untenable, because statins undeniably harm some people. Besides increasing the risk for developing diabetes, statins can cause memory loss, muscle weakness, stomach distress, and aches and pains. These aren't merely anecdotal results, as some critics assert; they're
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and people with higher cholesterol are at higher risk for heart attacks. There's good evidence that people who already have heart disease benefit from cholesterol-lowering medications, or statins. Among those people, statin treatment reduces risk of heart attack and may prolong life.
Despite research that has included tens of thousands of people, there is no evidence that taking statins prolongs life, although cholesterol levels do decrease. Using the most optimistic projections, for every 100 healthy people who take statins for five years, one or two will avoid a heart attack. One will develop diabetes. But, on average, there is no evidence that the group taking statins will live any longer than those who don't. Some argue that clinical trials of statin use among healthy people haven't demonstrated a reduced mortality rate because each individual trial only follows patients for a few years, not long enough to show a reduction in mortality. Many doctors, including me, believe that we need clinical trials that actually follow healthy people treated with statins for the long term to see if treatment really results in lower mortality. Statin proponents think such trials would be prohibitively expensive. That's a disappointing stance, considering the billions that have already been spent on statin prescriptions and advertising. Another well-publicized study that showed good short-term results among healthy people taking statins, the Jupiter trial, remains controversial. Some statin supporters argue that even if the data don't support the benefits of statins in healthy people, they might help and can't hurt. But that's untenable, because statins undeniably harm some people. Besides increasing the risk for developing diabetes, statins can cause memory loss, muscle weakness, stomach distress, and aches and pains. These aren't merely anecdotal results, as some critics assert; they're