How safe are statins?

A PATIENT and her son came to my clinic one day looking rather upset. She had been told by a doctor that the cholesterol medication, 10 mg of simvastatin daily, that was prescribed to her will damage her body, including her liver and muscle and she should not take any cholesterol lowering medication called statins. I had to patiently explain the merits and safety of statin to this patient in great detail and after an hour, she and her son were fully convinced of the benefits of taking statin.

Time and time again, questions have arisen from patients about the safety of statins after they have read reports posted on the Internet.

Statins are the most widely prescribed cholesterol medication and they comprise a class of drugs which block the production of LDL cholesterol (LDL-C ) or "bad" cholesterol by the liver. The Internet has a mix of scholarly studies expounding on the merits of statins and anecdotal articles written by individuals who describe the demerits of st…