To prescribe or not to prescribe: That is the statin question, experts debate

I have 29 posts on statins covering a lot of the plusses and minuses. I do take mine, although I have no idea what my level is without taking them. My opinion on this is that while cholesterol is a problem because it attaches itself to artery walls, the attachment is what is needed to be stopped. Statins do not address the real problem. You brain needs cholesterol to function properly. Ask your doctor, I'm just a stupid stroke survivor. You do know that patients are as smart as laboratory rats.
http://www.theheart.org/article/1343169.do?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=20120127_TopStories_EN
Are statins one of the greatest advances since the introduction of antibiotics, capable of preventing cardiovascular disease in a wide range of patients, even healthy ones, or are clinicians relying too heavily on the lipid-lowering medications, using the drugs too frequently in individuals who would be better treated with an overhaul of their diet and exercise habits?

The two very different sides of the statin argument are debated today in the Wall Street Journal [1], with Dr Roger Blumenthal (Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, Baltimore, MD) arguing the drugs prevent heart disease in patients with cardiovascular risk factors as well as in those who have already had a cardiovascular event. Good diet and exercise are the foundations of good health, says Blumenthal, but they're simply not enough sometimes, especially in patients with increased LDL-cholesterol levels or other cardiovascular risk factors.

"Every major medical guideline calls for doctors to prescribe a statin to certain seemingly healthy people with high levels of 'bad' cholesterol, which signals elevated risk for a heart attack," according to Blumenthal. "Doing so is one of the certainties of life, like the Cubs falling out of the pennant race by Labor Day."

Dr Rita Redberg (University of California, San Francisco), on the other hand, argues against the current practice of prescribing statins to patients with cardiovascular risk factors, including individuals with elevated cholesterol levels. To heartwire, she said that there are too many low-risk individuals taking statins, and they simply don't get a benefit. In these low-risk/low-benefit patients, given the residual risk of statins, benefit is exceeded by harm.

"Despite research that has included tens of thousands of people, there is no evidence that taking statins prolongs life, although cholesterol levels do decrease," she writes in the Journal. "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."