Some statins are overprescribed and their side effects are sometimes ignored as an "ends justify the means" thing, but they do work
They're the most profitable drug in history and they keep lowering the threshold to prescribe them, that should be your first red flag.
The guidelines have gone from under 300 total cholesterol to under 200 to pushing even lower including pushing for under 70 ldl being ideal. they have no idea what they're doing except looking to the dollar signs.
There are connections between statins and cognitive decline and I've personally known two different people who had symptoms of cognitive decline who, after stopping their statins, saw a complete reversal in the symptoms.
They'll say that it's only water soluble statins that can get past the brain barrier into the brain but a variety of factors can cause impaired brain barrier function and may result in other ones getting past too. They see impaired barriers in shit like alzheimers and MS for example.
There's no benefit if you're over 65, no benefit if you don't have coronary calcium, no proof of a benefit for women, and might as well be no benefit if you haven't had a heart attack. They also increase calcium in the arteries which they cope over and come up with excuses as to why that's good actually.
They use bloated statistics to make the effect seem bigger than it is, like relative risk instead of absolute, and most of the evidence is for people with metabolic problems or diabetes or pre-existing heart disease. The former two you'd have a much more significant effect if you just got healthy and fixed the diabetes and insulin resistance given they're something like a 4x risk factor for heart disease way beyond what statins can do.
I guarantee it's fucking bullshit, every single thing I looked into after my doctor prescribed them (before I turned my health around) set off major red flags. Heart disease rates have continued to climb since we've been using them despite how pverprescribed they are, there's no real evidence they're helping with anything.
There are tons of criticisms, doubts, and major concerns about how the studies into them are run that are legitimate e enough for me to turn them down and go for lifestyle instead.
Plus the patent is going to expire soon if it hasn't already and they're predictably switching to a new drug to profit off of, another sign it's all been a gift.
