Rapid Responses to:

NEWS: Susan Mayor Statins reduce cardiovascular risk BMJ 2002; 325: 5a [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

drugs and risk factors.

BM Hegde   (5 July 2002)

drugs and risk factors. 5 July 2002
BM Hegde, Vice Chancellor MANIPAL-576 119. India Send response to journal: Re: drugs and risk factors.	Dear Sir, I have a few questions that bother me. *Who financed this study of statins? *How long is "long term" side effects of statins? Many drugs produce dangerous side effects only after five long years of use. Look at the long term audits of popular anti-hypertensive drugs as an example. *At this rate many other drugs would be tried in normal human beings with risk factors, depending, of course, on the drug company resources. *I understand that there are hundreds of "so-called" risk factors for vascular diseases. *A time would come when normal people would be taking so many chemicals to help reduce their long term possible risks, but how sure are we that in a given individual time evolution depends on our linear calculations? *Studies in the past have shown that too much intervention in healthy people might have disastrous consequences in the long run. This is called "butter-fly" effect in physics! *These are only random thoughts for someone to think about. * Lastly, how safe are statins, anyway? yours ever, bmhegde