Worried about taking statins? Here’s what you need to know

After last week’s controversial Catalyst program on the ABC, some people may be wondering whether they should stop taking statins to lower their cholesterol. But before making such a decision, read this article and discuss your risk of heart disease or stroke with a doctor.

About 2.6 million Australians take statins. And a recent analysis of Australian data found that over-treatment of people at low risk is more common than under-treatment of people at high risk.

This is problematic but it doesn’t reflect a problem with the statins. Rather, it shows that people may not be appropriately informed about who benefits from taking this medicine.

What the trials say

While Catalyst highlighted that most of the major trials for statins have been funded by the pharmaceutical industry, it didn’t explain their overall results.

A collaboration funded by the UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK (the Cholesterol Treatment Triallists Collaboration), brought together data from 26 trials involving 170,000 patients, to better understand what the trials found.

What they discovered was the results are remarkably consistent: they show statins reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke by about 20%. This is true whether you’ve had a heart attack or stroke in the past or not.