Addition of statins into the public water supply? Risks of side effects and low cholesterol levels
Authors:
Emil Ginter; Igo Kajaba; Marián Šauša
Authors‘ workplace:
Slovenská zdravotnícka univerzita, Bratislava, Slovenská republika
Published in:
Čas. Lék. čes. 2012; 151: 243-247
Category:
Review Articles
Overview
After the discovery of antibiotics, statins, the inhibitors of cholesterol synthesis have been the best-selling prescription drug in the world. These drugs have well documented benefits for cardiovascular disease in many groups of patients at moderate and high cardiovascular risk. US Health authorities are currently pushing for ‘anti-cholesterol’ drugs to be added to the public water supply. Statins in-depth studies have shown that they can actually have a detrimental effect on the health of people without high cholesterol or heart disorders. Statins should be prescribed only to those patients with heart disease, or who have suffered the condition in the past. Researchers warn that unless a patient is at high risk of the heart attack or stroke, statins may cause more harm than good.
Key words:
statins, water fortification, total mortality, cholesterol level, cardiovascular diseases, myopathy, liver diseases, cancer.
Sources
1. Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study Group. Randomized trial of cholesterol lowering in 4444 patients with coronary heart disease: the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S). Lancet 1994; 344: 1383–1389.
2. Jick H, Wilson A. Wiggins P, et al. Comparison of prescription drug costs in the United States and the United Kingdom, Part 1: Statins. Pharmacotherapy 2012; 12: 1–6.
3. Ray KK, Seshasai SRK, Sebhat Erqou S, et al. Statins and all-cause mortality in high-risk primary prevention. A meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials involving 65 229 participants. Arch Intern Med 2010; 170(12): 1024–1031.
4. Vandra M. In „US Health authorities want statins added to drinking water.“ CWD January 21, 2011.
5. Stamler J, Wentworth D, Neaton JD. Is relationship between serum cholesterol and risk of premature death from coronary heart disease continuous and graded? Findings in 356,222 primary screenees of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT). JAMA 1986; 256(20): 2823–2828.
6. Daniels SR. Screening and treatment of dyslipidemias in children and adolescents. Horm Res Paediatr 2011; 76(Suppl 1): 47–51.
7. de Jongh S, Ose L, Szamosi T, et al. Efficacy and safety of statin therapy in children with familial hypercholesterolemia. Circulation 2002; 106: 2231–2237.
8. de Jongh S, Lilien MR, Roodt J, et al. Early statin therapy restores endothelial function in children with familial hypercholesterolemia. J Am Coll Cardiol 2002; 40(12): 2117–2121.
9. Rodenburg J, Vissers MN, Wiegman A, et al. Statin treatment in children with familial hypercholesterolemia: the younger, the better. Circulation 2007; 116(6): 664–668.
10. Avis HJ, Vissers MN, Stein EA, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of statin therapy in children with familial hypercholesterolemia. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2007; 27(8): 1803–1810.
11. Vuorio A, Kuoppala J, Kovanen PT, et al. Statins for children with familial hypercholesterolemia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2010; (7): CD006401.
12. Martínez-Carpio PA, Barba J, Bedoya-Del Campillo A. Relation between cholesterol levels and neuropsychiatric disorders. Rev Neurol 2009; 48(5): 261–264.
13. Kronmal RA, Cain KC, Ye Z, Omenn GS. Total serum cholesterol levels and mortality risk as a function of age. A report based on the Framingham Data. Arch Intern Med 1993; 153(9): 1065–1073.
14. Tuikkala P, Hartikainen S, Korhonen MJ, et al. Serum total cholesterol levels and all-cause mortality in a home-dwelling elderly population: a six-year follow-up. Scand J Prim Health Care 2010; 28(2): 121–127.
15. Onder G, Landi F, Volpato S, et al. Serum cholesterol levels and in-hospital mortality in the elderly. Am J Med 2003; 115(4): 265–271.
16. Roberts CG, Guallar E, Rodriguez A. Efficacy and safety of statin monotherapy in older adults: a meta-analysis. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2007; 62(8): 879–887.
17. Hippisley-Cox J, Coupland C. Unintended effects of statins in men and women in England and Wales: population based cohort study using the QResearch database. BMJ 2010; 340: c2197. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c2197.
18. Preiss D, Seshasai SR, Welsh P, et al. Risk of incident diabetes with intensive-dose compared with moderate-dose statin therapy: a meta-analysis. JAMA 2011; 305(24): 2556–2564.
19. Sattar N, Preiss D, Murray HM, et al. Statins and risk of incident diabetes: a collaborative meta-analysis of randomised statin trials. Lancet 2010; 375(9716): 735–742.
20. Golomb BA, Evans MA. Statin adverse effects : a review of the literature and evidence for a mitochondrial mechanism. Am J Cardiovasc Drugs 2008; 8(6): 373–418.
21. Padala S, Thompson PD. Statins as a possible cause of inflammatory and necrotizing myopathies. Atherosclerosis 2012; 222: 15–21.
22. Jacobs D, Blackburn H, Higgins M, et al. Report of the Conference on Low Blood Cholesterol: Mortality Associations. Circulation 1992; 86(3): 1046–1060.
23. Suarez EC. Relations of trait depression and anxiety to low lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in healthy young adult women. Psychosom Med 1999; 61(3): 273–279.
24. Schatzkin A, Hoover RN, Taylor PR, et al. Serum cholesterol and cancer in the NHANES I epidemiologic follow up study. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Lancet 1987; 2: 298–301.
25. DeMaria AN, Ori Ben-Yehuda. Low-density lipoprotein reduction and cancer. J Amer Coll Cardiol 2007; 50: 421–422.
26. Alsheikh-Ali AA, Maddukuri PV, Han H, Karas RH. Effect of the magnitude of lipid lowering on risk of elevated liver enzymes, rhabdomyolysis, and cancer: insights from large randomized statin trials J Am Coll Cardiol 2007; 50: 409–418.
27. Yang X, So W, Ko GT, Ma RC, et al. Independent associations between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and cancer among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Canad Med Assoc J 2008; 179: 427–437.
28. Muldoon MF, Marsland A, Flory JD, et al. Immune system differences in men with hypo- or hypercholesterolemia. Clin Immunol Immunopathol 1997; 84: 145–149.
29. Swanson CA, Potischman N, Barrett RJ, et al. Endometrial cancer risk in relation to serum lipids and lipoprotein levels. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 1994; 3(7): 575–581.
30. Ahn J, Lim U, Weinstein SJ, et al. Prediagnostic total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and risk of cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009; 18(11): 2814–2821.
31. Blank N, Schiller M, Krienke S, et al. Atorvastatin Inhibits T Cell activation through 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase without decreasing cholesterol synthesis. J Immunolog 2007; 179: 3613–3621.
32. Matsuzaki M, Kita T, Mabuchi H, et al. Large scale cohort study of the relationship between serum cholesterol concentration and coronary events with low-dose simvastatin therapy in Japanese patients with hypercholesterolemia. Circ J 2002; 66(12): 1087–1095.
33. Alsheikh-Ali AA, Maddukuri PV, Han H, Karas RH. Effect of the magnitude of lipid lowering on risk of elevated liver enzymes, rhabdomyolysis, and cancer: insights from large randomized statin trials. J Am Coll Cardiol 2007; 50(5): 409–418.
34. Thompson JS, Sood A, Arora R. Statins and cancer: a potential link? Am J Ther 2010; 17(4): e100–104.
35. Ahn J, Lim U, Stephanie J. Weinstein SJ, et al.Prediagnostic total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and risk of cancer. Expert Opin Drug Saf 2010; 9(4): 603–621.
36. Jacobs EJ, Newton CC, Thun MJ, et al. Long-term use of clolesterol-lowering drugs and cancer incidence in a large United States cohort. Cancer Res 2011; 71(5): 1763–1771.
37. Boudreau DM, Onchee Yu, MS, Johnson J. Statin use and cancer risk: A comprehensive review. Expert Opin Drug Saf 2010; 9(4): 603–621.
38. Kuoppala J, Lamminpää A, Pukkala E. Statins and cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Cancer 2008; 44(15): 2122–2132.
39. Gauthaman K, Fong CY, Bongso A. Statins, stem cells, and cancer. J Cell Biochem 2009; 106(6): 975–983.
Labels
Addictology Allergology and clinical immunology Angiology Audiology Clinical biochemistry Dermatology & STDs Paediatric gastroenterology Paediatric surgery Paediatric cardiology Paediatric neurology Paediatric ENT Paediatric psychiatry Paediatric rheumatology Diabetology Pharmacy Vascular surgery Pain management Dental HygienistArticle was published in
Journal of Czech Physicians
![Issue 5](https://www.prolekare.cz/media/cache/resolve/journal_issue/media/image_pdf/bd391a67ccd264f09f95f825bf9fa906.jpeg)
Most read in this issue
- Czech paediatric cardiac surgery – history and presence
- Addition of statins into the public water supply? Risks of side effects and low cholesterol levels
- Long-term therapy of idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease
- Physician and freedom of conscience