A class of drugs that doctors from Imperial College London say should be handed out like ketchup packets as “preventative medicine” to the public has once again been shown to be completely useless. A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that statins, which are often hawked as the golden goose of heart health, do not provide any protection whatsoever against heart disease, nor do they reduce the number of deaths caused by anything.

In fact, adults over the age of 65 who are prescribed statin drugs to keep their cholesterol levels in check – 65-plus being the most targeted age group for statin prescriptions – are actually more likely to die from them than others who don’t take these medications. And while this probably won’t come as a surprise to NaturalNews readers, the new study found that changing one’s diet, and not taking statins, is actually the best medication for preventing heart disease, countering the plethora of industry “science” that’s been used to aggressively push statins as some type of miracle cure for the heart.

The paper, which is sure to ruffle some feathers within the drug industry, contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that what the public is being told about statins is “fundamentally flawed.” Millions of people take statins, falsely believing them to be the science-based solution to high cholesterol, when in fact these pills offer no benefits. Beyond this, statins have been shown to be inherently harmful, though you wouldn’t know this from the way they’re essentially handed out like candy.

Researchers conclude that statins provide ‘no benefit’ to older adults

For this latest indictment of statins, researchers from the New York University School of Medicine looked at data compiled on 2,867 adults, all of whom had some degree of hypertension. None of these individuals were verified to have an actual build-up of plaque in their arteries, though all were potential risk candidates for such based on their health profiles.

Just over half of the participants were assigned to take 40 milligrams daily of pravastatin, one of the more common statin drugs on the market. The other half was not given the drug, but instead took the advice of their doctors in making necessary lifestyle changes that help promote heart health and maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

At the completion of the study, it was observed that far more deaths occurred in the pravastatin group than in the lifestyle change group. At the same time, minimal heart benefits were observed in the pravastatin group, suggesting that the drug provides no benefits as is commonly claimed by those who make money from prescribing it.

“No benefit was found when a statin was given for primary prevention to older adults,” the researchers concluded in their paper.

While statin use in people with high cholesterol has been shown in some studies to help promote cholesterol reduction, the side effects are often so severe as to negate any perceived benefits. Furthermore, the promotion of statin use as some kind of preventative “supplement,” which is how many doctors now prescribe it, is nothing short of irresponsible – which this latest study once against proves.

“The vast majority of those who take statins would never suffer a heart attack or stroke,” adds the DailyMail Online about the uselessness of statin drugs. “A 2013 Harvard study calculated that for every 140 low-risk patients who take statins for five years, only one major heart event is prevented.”

More stories on the statin drug scam can be accessed at Statins.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com