To hear pharmaceutical companies tell it, statin drugs are "miracle" medicines that have prevented millions of heart attacks and strokes. But a recent study published in the British Medical Journal tells a completely different story: For every heart attack prevented by the drug, 2 or > people suffered liver damage, kidney failure, cataracts or extreme muscle weakness as a result of taking the drug. Statin drugs, in other words, harm far more people than they help. Highly deceptive advertising implies that statin drugs help everyone who takes them. However, statin drugs only "work" on about 2.7% of those who take them. Yet they cause serious damage in about 4.4% of those who take them. From the point of view of pharmaceutical companies, they have the added benefit of causing other diseases that often result in yet more drugs or medical procedures being prescribed. Kidney dialysis is a multi-billion-dollar business all by itself.
