Statin drugs are prescribed to artificially lower cholesterol in the body, to attempt to reduce heart disease and mortality. When you look at the research, it becomes questionable if heart disease is reduced. You can decide for yourself by looking at the following studies.
The popular statin drug, Lipitor is shown to help only 1 in 100 people. And research shows it is not from the lowered cholesterol, but from the slight anti-inflammatory effect of the drug. In other words if you are taking Lipitor you are only 1% better off than not taking it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeLLoCdnhiU (CBS Katie Couric: Lipitor)
In 2006 a study in The Archives of Internal Medicine looked at seven trials of statin use in nearly 43,000 patients, mostly middle-aged men without heart disease. In that review, statins didn’t lower mortality.
Nor did they lower mortality in a study known as Prosper, published in The Lancet in 2002, which studied statin use in people seventy and older.
Nor did they lower mortaility in a 2004 review in The Journal of the American Medical Association, which looked at thirteen studies of nearly 20,000 women both healthy and with established heart disease.
Its written out in detail in Business Week magazine’s January 2008 Lipitor cover story: “Do Cholesterol Drugs do any Good?”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994.htm
