It is so unfortunate that the medical community is as split over the efficacy, and dangers of, statins as the world is over politics, left or right.

Statins don't have a great track record, even decades after they were approved for use. The research was fudged, as it has been for fats and vegetarian diets, for sugars of all kinds....it's a mess. I watched a video last night by yet another cardiologist who showed what appeared to be 'bone densities' (showing as white marks) on chest imaging of the hearts of a few patients who had taken statins for a few years. He said the evidence is clear, that statins actually promote calcium deposition in some people's arteries. Even in cases where they don't, the all cause mortality rates for statins are poor, meaning you have to treat 1000 people with moderate dosages for ten years to save something like 10 lives! If the calcium deposition problem is true (and I can't argue either way), then maybe statins kill hundreds who might have lived another five years or more.

One personal anecdote which I hope you can accept as truthful and exemplary: I developed atrial fibrillation and had to have my pulmonary veins isolated in the left atrium. This is done with a catheter inserted in the groin, run up through to the heart, and the wand at the end makes small burns around the mouths of the pulmonary veins, which isolates them electrically when scarring forms later. Before this, though, I had to have multiple imaging and an angiogram to see if I have heart disease...atherosclerosis. That has to be fixed first or the fibrillation will just return because of the atherosclerosis. Now, to the point: the angiogram and a later Doppler ultrasound of my carotid (neck) arteries showed 'minor deposition'. I'm 69 by this time, well into the aged males' typical heart condition....except that I'm in really good shape according to those two diagnostics. So, why am I on a statin...is what I asked my GP and the cardiologist? Both said, straight-faced, 'It will help you to live longer.' No measurable heart disease, clear arteries, already advanced in age, male,......but I have to take statins? Nope.