Statins may drain energy

Statins, taken by 13 million Americans to lower cholesterol, may also drain energy levels:

Should even the healthy take statins?

"Preventive medicine focuses on encouraging the general public to worry about illnesses that they will probably never develop, and on doctors to search for remedies that they may never need. But it saves lives. The number of British men and women dying prematurely from heart attacks has fallen by almost a third over the past decade and much of the credit must go to the increasingly widespread use of the statin family of cholesterol-lowering drugs. Statins are taken by millions of people in the UK and are one of the key ingredients in the polypill (a collection of five different drugs being developed as a cardiovascular panacea for anyone over the age of 55). The Department of Health estimates that statins prevent about 10,000 early deaths every year, but a small and vocal group of sceptics believes that they are not as effective as claimed and that they cause a number of disabling side-effects" - Times

Cholesterol contrarians question cult of statins

"The swell of support for broad use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have some medical researchers fearing that side effects we already know about suggest the drugs are too little understood" - Miller–McCune

Rockefeller University Hospital opens clinical trial into statin-associated muscle complaints

"The most widely prescribed class of drugs in the country, statins have helped millions of people lower their cholesterol and reduce their risk of heart attacks - but their side effects, including muscle pain and cramping, have proven to be something of a sore point for many patients. Now, researchers at The Rockefeller University Hospital aim to determine the cause of statin-associated myopathy in a new clinical study. Patricia Maningat, instructor in clinical investigation in Rockefeller's Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, is the study's principal investigator. Approximately 38 million people in the United States are on statins, and medical professionals expect the number to continue rising. About 10 percent of patients taking statins report some level of myopathic symptoms, but the only marker known to gauge them - elevated blood levels of an enzyme known as creatine kinase - often shows up normal, creating diagnostic confusion and leaving many muscle complaints undiagnosed" - Newswire

High-dose statin before PCI decreases periprocedural MI risk

Loading or reloading with high-dose atorvastatin reduces the risk of periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI) and vascular events in patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), according to data presented at the American College of Cardiology 58th Annual Scientific Session. In a loading study, atorvastatin 80 mg administered within 24 hours of PCI to statin-naïve patients reduced the risk of periprocedural non-Q-wave MI by 44%, reported Carlo Briguori, MD, PhD, of Clinica Mediterranea, Naples, Italy. Up to 30% of untreated patients have increases in troponin and creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) levels after stent implantation, Dr Briguori said. In this study, 668 statin-naïve patients scheduled for elective PCI were randomized to receive either atorvastatin 80 mg or placebo.