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statins

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style...side-effects-Statins-are-actually-safe-to-use
“The journal allowed these authors to repeat these misrepresentations of evidence,” he said.
“They repeated these a number of times despite the error being pointed out.
“They overestimated the side effects of statins by more than 20 times.”
Dr Abramson has admitted that claims contained in his research paper, that 20 per cent of patients on statins suffered side effects, were flawed. He has now withdrawn the statement. Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist in Croydon, south London, repeated the findings and has now also withdrawn claims submitted in a paper to the BMJ.
 
@jack412 My understanding is that the articles were withdrawn because the actual figure for proportion of people suffering side effects was 17.4%, which had been rounded up, erroneously, to 20%, not because the broad message of the pieces was wrong. You can find out more (and lots more about statins in general) on Dr John Briffa's blog, http://www.drbriffa.com/2014/08/08/...pers-to-be-retracted-backfired-spectacularly/

Above, I suggested that the OP's husband could flush statins down the loo, or throw away the prescription. I agree with Douglas that it is much better to be truthful with your doctor, but some people just don't feel able to tell a doctor that they are not taking their advice. Loos and dustbins are an option, if you feel strongly, but lack the necessary assertiveness in medical surroundings.
Sally
 
it isn't black and white and for some reason the link messed with the numbers again, there seems to be a lot of emotional investment into statins
I think the expression is..there are lies dam lies and statistics
http://theconversation.com/scientists-are-only-human-but-statins-error-shows-perils-of-bias-26995
The problem was that they ignored all the caveats that the authors of that study made, and as it was a retrospective review of patients charts it didn’t establish a true cause-and-effect relationship between the discontinuation of the statins and actual side effects. According to the 2013 study, 17.4% of patients reported a “statin related incident” and of those only 59% stopped the medication. So at the most, only 9-10% of patients could be said to have discontinued statins due to suspected side effects – not the 18% cited by Abramson.
The 2013 study also didn’t include a placebo control group, but in trials with placebo groups similar rates of “side effects” have been documented in those taking statins and those taking placebos. This would suggest only a small minority of perceived side effects are truly caused by statins.
 
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