Part 1: A $29-billion-dollar-a-year industry
Part 2: The selling of a disease
Part 3: The statinization of society
In 2011, the Cochrane Collaboration published a meta-analysis, or a study of studies, on the effectiveness of statins for primary prevention of CVD. They concluded that 223 people with no previous history of CVD would have to be treated with statins for three years in order to avert one death. Even that figure was an exaggeration, since the meta-analysis included studies in which as many as 10 percent of participants did have a previous history of CVD. The authors concluded "Only limited evidence showed that primary prevention with statins may be cost effective and improve patient quality of life. Caution should be taken in prescribing statins for primary prevention among people at low cardiovascular risk."
