Food for thought: Should all people over 55 be given statins?
Statins are drugs that lower blood cholesterol. They reduce the risk of heart disease substantially and are widely prescribed: some 2.5 million people in Britain take them at the moment.
Long-term studies indicate that the risk continues to reduce as cholesterol goes down - below what are now 'normal' levels for people on typical Western diets. Some public health researchers have controversially advocated that everyone should take statins. They are part of a 'polypill' that has been used in trials testing the preventive powers of a combined daily dose of a statin, aspirin and drugs that reduce blood pressure.
However, the benefits of statins are stronger for people known to be at high risk of heart disease. If very large numbers of people take a powerful drug for the rest of their lives, even rare side-effects would crop up regularly. There are also worries that providing such a pill might make people less likely to follow advice on a healthy diet or take enough exercise, making them miss out on other benefits.
Further ideas to explore
Mass treatment with minerals and vitamins is often controversial. Other topics to explore include:
- adding fluoride to the water supply
- adding folic acid to bread
- genetically modifying food to produce particular chemicals (e.g. golden rice that produces beta-carotene).
Read more mythbusting around food online and on p12-13 of 'Big Picture: Food and Diet' magazine. You can order a copy or download a PDF.
Image credit: Anthea Sieveking , Wellcome Images.
This article is part of the online content for ‘Big Picture: Food and Diet’.