More Statins Recommended
I can't be sure because it was stupid o'clock when I read this on the Beeb news app, and they appear to have toned down the headline. Now it says 'More 0ver-75s should take statins, experts say'. This could, apparently, save thousands of lives each year if more than the estimated third of UK 0ver-75s who do take statins were given them'.
The way things are going in Britain at the moment I'm thinking this is a good way of emptying nursing homes and geriatric wards ...
A quick google around this shows Colin Baigent is firmly in the Rory Collins non-disclosure of data camp - that's enough for me...
To put this into perspective, about 2.5% of 63-year-olds with no history of vascular disease would be expected to have their first major vascular event per year, compared with 4% of 78-year-olds.
Reducing those risks by a fifth would prevent first major vascular events from occurring each year in 50 people aged 63 and 80 people aged 78 per 10,000 people treated.
So, to prevent 1 'vascular event' in 63 year olds you need to medicate 199 people needlessly. To prevent a 1000, that's 199,000 unnecessary prescriptions at £8 for two months, so a cost of of £9.5m per year. And if I am reading the article correctly, they have only looked at specific year groups - so across the ages of 50- 80, you could multiply that figure by 30... Would be interested in Zoe's take on my maths and analysis, but it strikes me that that is an awful lot of OUR money that could be far better spent! If statins now cost pennies, only 'positive' might be that NHS makes a profit from the prescription charges - but a big proportion of that group are on free meds anyway!
Loved this bit too:
"But GPs are highly trained to prescribe and will only recommend the drugs if they think they will genuinely help the person sitting in front of them, based on their individual circumstances - and after a frank conversation about the potential risks and benefits."
Zoë Tweeted on it:
Read any patient leaflet for statins and it cautions against the over 70s taking them. But then this group [CTSU] had received £268 MILLION from drug companies back in 2014 (zoeharcombe.com/2014/08/ctsu-f…) so how much by now?!
The worst bigots in the world are those who most loudly proclaim their ‘tolerance’
I thought the article implied that the recommendations for over 70s might be reversed?? Or at least ignored!
Doesn't it all just leave you despairing for common sense, and wondering how this is all going to end?
I saw this headline when I was tired and bleary eyed late last night, and all I felt was despair.
I just googled 'statins for over 75 years old's...and got a wealth of contradictory articles. No wonder the public is confused.
Dear Stomach,you are bored,not hungry. So shut up.
And then there's this to add fuel to the "Statins for everyone!" and "Let's Statinate the water supply" idiocy": https://www.self.com/story/heart-dis...ure-aha-report
CNN was clutching its pearls yesterday over this little gem (from the article) "(T)he report found that that there were 840,678 deaths from the disease in 2016, which is up from 836,546 in 2015." The difference (4,132), while tragic for the families of the deceased, is an increase of 0.494%. Not statistically significant and a single year-on-year difference doesn't indicate any sort of trend. At best it's a blip.
Of course, in the real world, a huge proportion of the 48% of Americans with "cardiovascular disease" are people who have perfectly normal blood pressure, but since the guidelines were lowered now have hypertension and must be treated. Then there's another subset who've got "high" cholesterol...
I wonder if the idiots like 'professor' 'Sir' Rory Collins actually take statins themselves.....
The worst bigots in the world are those who most loudly proclaim their ‘tolerance’
My GP told me straight she refuses to give out statins to any of her patients unless their health is dire and the patient does not have the inclination to make life style changes or is not in control of their situation.
With the number of people on statins the water supply may be statinated by default. It's happening with female hormones in the UK.
One is too many a thousand not enough.
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