I am just reading yet another book, this one is very interesting, titled “The Changing Mind” by Daniel Levitin – A neuroscientists guide to aging well.

I would like to quote a paragraph – hopefully Daniel won’t mind as I’m encouraging people to read his book, which is very interesting: he says that statins only have an effect in 1 in 300 people.

“As we’ve seen though, well intentioned interventions don’t always have the desired effect. It isn’t entirely clear that lowering LDL through the use of statins actually lowers your risk of heart disease – the statins may simply lower a marker associated with disease, and not an actual cause. And even so, statins have a tiny effect: in some studies, three hundred people have to take a statin to delay or prevent an heart attack for one person in a given year.”

So thats 299 in 300 people at risk from the side effects, which include cancer!

The problem I have with all these situations where somebody is trying to sell you something that makes them billions: its what they don’t say that is important. They never tell you how many fair independent studies have taken place, and in an area as complex as nutrition, its very hard in any case to prove anything, apart from the usual, stop smoking, more exercise, don’t overeat, less stress.

I personally think stress is a major factor in heart disease, and stress is everywhere in the modern world.

Anyone thinking of taking statins should seriously read Dr Malcolm Kendricks books and then make up their own mind.