I have stratospheric cholesterol levels. My GP has been trying to sell me statins for years.

I am still waiting for him to answer one question: where is the statistic that says "people taking statins have a lower incidence of heart disease than those who don't?"

So far, the furthest he will go is "more people with high cholesterol die of heart disease than those with low cholesterol". No-one has thought it necessary to look further than this.

I'm waiting for some reality to creep into the debate before I commit.

Although I am not a medical person, I have a profound interest in health and fitness, especially in relation to diet, and have read extensively on the subject. I would describe myself as an educated layman. From that point of view I find this article to be both timely and though provoking. As part of my many readings, I discovered a book some time ago called 'The Cholesterol Myth' - I still have a copy. The book makes many of the points raised in this present article.

There seems to be (at least to me) insufficient evidence to establish a water-tight case to the effect that ingested cholesterol adds to the risk of heart disease, and that necessary causality has been established. The evidence at best seems to be largely contingent association. No doubt like anything else taken to extreme, too much cholesterol will have a deleterious effect on health - in matters of eating, balance and moderation, taken together with allowances for idiosyncratic factors, are the key issues.

That children are being submitted to cholesterol lowering drugs is a horrifying indictment of our advertising and our pharmaceutical industries, captilizing, as they seem to be doing, on the uniformed fears of well - meaning parents who themselves may have lost loved ones to heart disease and are therefore especially vulnerable.

I will await with genuine interest to hear any further comments here that might be presented by qualified medical people.

Really interesting.
Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I bought "Selling Sickness" by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels.
I haven't started reading it yet, but I noticed that the first chapter is on cholesterol. Can't wait to read it now.

My uncle knows a man who always felt ill and had many complaints despite the many (22 per day) pills, including statins, the doctors and specialists had given him for all of his ailments.

Some time ago, my uncle met him and he looked much better and happier than last time they met. When my uncle commented on his healthy looks, the man said he felt better than ever.
The reason for his improving health is that he became so fed-up with taking all this medication that he had one day decided to bin them all.
He takes no medication anymore and as a result he feels fantastic.

All very good posts.

Just put "statin side effects" into Google.

David