(Robert Preidt/ WebMD) — Many people who take cholesterol-lowering statins may not benefit from them, researchers say.
Drugs like atorvastatin (Lipitor) and fluvastatin (Lescol) provide little value to people without heart disease, new research shows. Yet these heart-healthy folks represent a sizable number of statin users.
While statins for people with heart disease isn’t controversial, their use in people without heart disease (known as “primary prevention”) is the subject of debate.
The use of statins for primary prevention “warrants more careful consideration,” concluded researchers led by Paula Byrne of the National University of Ireland Galway.
Used in this way, statins “may be an example of low value care and, in some cases, represent a waste of health care resources,” the study authors said. (…)