(CNN)The thought that comes to mind when you hear the word "statin" may depend on your age. Below the age of 40 and you may not have come across them, but for everyone else, these drugs can be something they love, or equally as often, loathe.
Statins are a class of drugs used to reduce low-density lipoprotein, LDL cholesterol, within the body. They prescribed to people with high LDL cholesterol, when levels are above two to three milliliters of cholesterol per liter of blood. These individuals are at risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease, stroke and heart attack. The drug works by inhibiting theenzyme involved in the body"s ability to produce this form of cholesterol.
"There are a lot of high-risk patients who are not taking statins," said Collins, who wants people to better understand the information available to them regarding these drugs.
The researchers highlight in the paper that studies based on observations within a population do not produce reliable evidence about the effects of drug treatments for common health conditions, such as heart disease, and cannot attribute the cause of any benefits or side-effects specifically to a drug.
They instead highlight the credibility of randomized controlled trials, which can directly link any benefits, or harms, to the drug being trialed. For such trials, the evidence on statins was seen to be overwhelmingly in favor of the treatment.
"[This study] is an unusually comprehensive document that explains not only the evidence derived from these studies but the rationale and relative merits for evaluating drugs," added Choudhury, who was not involved in the study. "Wrong decisions based on incomplete, misleading, or misguided interpretation of the data and the consequent confusion leads to the squandering of actual benefits to real patients."
"This is really serious stuff ... and anything you can do to prevent them really matters," said Smeeth. "The problem we have with statins is that misleading claims that are not supported by scientific evidence have really come to the fore ... and they"re demonstrably wrong."
Collins added that the team wanted to make people know which evidence they should trust. "People should make informed choices," he said. "I hope this helps recreate some of the balance."
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/08/health/study-explores-pros-and-cons-of-statins/index.html
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