Experts in Sweden are warning that the new U.S. recommendations for lowering cholesterol levels would increase the risk of harmful side effects with no overall reduction in deaths.
According to the American National Cholesterol Education Program people at high risk of heart disease should be treated more aggressively and by that they mean that LDL-cholesterol concentrations should be lowered to less than 1.81 millimoles per litre of blood (mmol/l) in high-risk individuals.
At present guidelines generally recommend 2.56 mmol/l as a healthy reading.
Uffe Ravnskov, an independent researcher from Lund, Sweden says that in order to achieve this most of the Western world’s adult population would be on statins, and doses would have to be more than eight times higher than currently used, and this in turn would increase both the number and seriousness of side effects.
Ravnskov's team suggest that such high doses would mean side effects could include heart failure, myalgia and rhabdomyolysis (which destroys muscle tissue), neurological problems and cancers.
The Swedish warning on the potential risks of using statins in high doses has evoked strong criticism from some of the top U.S. cardiologists who say the researchers have ignored the findings of many large clinical trials that show the benefits and safety of statins, even in large doses.