Is it the drugs or compliance with therapy that is important?
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There is a lot of hype and a lot of confidence placed in a class of drugs called STATINS. These are the ones you see advertised on the evening news and the most famous and richest of them is Lipitor. The general public believe these drugs save lives. The truth lies somewhere in between they should be in the water and it is a conspiracy between drug manufacturers and Doctors to get everyone on them.
Right now if you have high (above 100) LDL cholesterol it is recommend you take them if a trial of diet and activity does not benefit you. If you have diabetes, hypertension or any form of heart disease you are supposed to take them. They are supposed to prevent plaques, reduce your risk of heart attack, and heart disease and help you live longer.
That all probably isn’t true. If you don’t die of heart disease, you will probably die of some other cause about the same time. As for heart disease, they are really only “proved” effective in men under age 65 with pre-existing heart disease.
Some studies have shown that it is those people who comply with therapy whether it was placebo or the actual drug under study that benefit most. There is something about the willingness to do what it takes that makes them better off even when they do not have actual therapy.
You have to decide with your doctor what you will do if and when you have a problem. I just do not want to take medication that makes me feel bad and costs me $300 per month and not have really GREAT benefits. I don’t want to pay that price for so-so benefits. I also hate to have people who can not afford it fretting they are going to die early because they can not afford the therapy.
The cost to save one life with these drugs is quite high. You have to treat hundreds of people to save just one life. It appears we are not treating the right part of the problem as some researchers think that cholesterol plaques are symptoms of the underlying cause and not the problem itself. The Statin drugs appear to be good at reducing inflammation that seems to be the real culprit since half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol.
Dr. Mike Eades has a long but easily understood blog post/article on this topic that I recommend you read. He does a great job of guiding you through the maze of thinking and to some extent misinformation that exists on this topic.
I am not opposed to the drugs but to the mentality that they are the Holy Grail. We should not be shouting Eureka, I have found it, but shoud be saying, we have this crude therapy, how could we make it more specific and how could we really prevent heart disease. A pill probably isn’t the answer.
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