The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent collaborative health care library, warns people and doctors against the use of statins to prevent heart problems. Statins are commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart attack in people who have a risk of heart disease.
Cholesterol-lowering statins may provide no benefit to healthy people, according to a review of previous studies. After analyzing 14 studies totalling 34,000 people, it calls into question the effectiveness of statins as a preventative.
It was noted that previous studies had several shortcomings and errors, including the obvious lack of important information about side effects, especially long-term. Previous studies link the drug to a range of side effects including liver problems, kidney failure and muscle weakness.
Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "… statins have huge benefits for people with heart and circulatory disease, or those who are high risk as they help to reduce the risk of heart disease including heart attacks. It is still unclear whether statins provide any real benefits for people without heart and circulatory disease and who are at low risk of developing it.”
In addition, several studies were funded by pharmaceutical companies. "It is well established that studies sponsored by industry are more likely to report results that prefer the drug over placebo," researchers noted. They recommend that caution should be taken in prescribing statins for primary prevention among people at low cardiovascular risk.