Statins are among the most commonly prescribed medications in the UK, and their benefits in terms of reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke and sudden death have been proven in studies time and time again.
Many people refuse to even try a statin, believing the risk of developing side-effects to be too high. In those that do try them, up to 50% of patients stop them, believing them to be responsible for various symptoms including muscle ache.
The results of the world’s largest study looking into this show that the true prevalence of statin intolerance is actually only in the order of 6 to 10%, meaning that many people are at greater risk of the consequences of cardiovascular disease unnecessarily.
Cardiologists have known this for some time but it is useful to have this backed up with the data, and we hope that it will encourage more patients to give statins a chance. Click here to read the full report.