What are the relative risks, absolute risks, number of treatments, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of taking cholesterol-lowering statins?
It was noted that describing the benefits of statins in terms of relative risk reduction alone may depend on the duration of the study to explain things in terms of the number needed for absolute risk reduction or treatment, in response to accusations that it is a “statistical deception” created to give the appearance that statins are more effective than they actually are, and that explanations may depend on the duration of the study.
For example, let’s say there’s a 2% chance that illness will kill you every year, but there are drug reductions that risk the risk of that. That sounds amazing, but at the end of the year, your risk has only decreased from 2% to 1%, so the absolute reduction in risk is only 1%. If 100 people are treated with medication, then 100 people die, not 2 people die, so at 1:01 on my video, 100 people need to be treated to save one life.
However, there is an approximately 99% chance that taking medication year-round is not effective either way. So, reducing the risk of drug death by 50% seems like an exaggeration. But think about it: benefits arise over time. If 2% of people are likely to die each year, then decades each year, the majority of people who refused the drug die, while the majority who took the drug are alive. So yes, perhaps in the first year of drugs, there was only about 1% chance that it would save a life, but in the end, the possibility that the drug could save your life could be decent.
“This is actually the very reason why the use of relative risk makes sense…” There is an absolute risk change depending on the time frame being discussed, but depending on the relative risk, you know that whatever risk you have, you can take medication and cut it in half. On average, statins only reduce the risk of cardiovascular “events” by 25%, but since cardiovascular disease is the number one killer for men and women, this is a strong argument in favor of taking these types of medications if you don’t want to change your diet. Taking statins allows you to see the “death postponement” and see the same type of addiction during the exam period. How long can you live if you are taking statins?
The average death postponement has several advantages over other statistics. Because statistics like the number required for treatment have a “lottery-like” quality of winning and losing, as it may provide “better intuitive understanding amongst the congregations.” So, when statin drugs prevent a heart attack in one of the 100 people treated for over five years, it doesn’t seem like the other 99 have been completely lost. Their cholesterol will also be lowered and their heart disease progression will slow down, but it was not enough to cause a heart attack within that narrow time frame.
So, what is the effect of statins on average survival? Early estimates show that, summarizing all randomized trials, the mean death postponement was calculated in 3-4 days. 3 or 4 days? Who has been taking medication every day for years, for years? Now, let’s put that into context. 3-4 days are comparable to the life expectancy benefits from other medical interventions. For example, it’s roughly the same as what you get from a “very effective childhood vaccine.” Vaccines are so effective at clearing out infections that they have recently added an average of three days to children’s lives. But of course, “people whose death has been avoided have practically earned a lifetime.” That’s why we vaccinate. It seems like such a small average profit, as it will be distributed to millions of children who have obtained the vaccine. Is that the same with statins?
The updated estimate was published in 2019. This explained that previous estimates for 3 or 4 days were troubled by “significant weaknesses,” and that the actual average death postponement was actually 10 days. Headline writers were whimsical from these data, but what they didn’t understand was that this was the only time they were in the trial. So, if your life expectancy is only 5 years, yes, a statin can increase your life expectancy by just 10 days, while a statin is intended to take more than 5 years. What you want to know is how long you can live if you stick to drugs for the rest of your life.
In that case, it’s not an extra 10 days, but you’re living up to 10 years extra. Taking statins can help you live for years. That’s because lowering bad LDL cholesterol for every millimole per liter can live for three years longer and six more years, depending on the research you’re reading. The US unit’s Milimall is 39 points. If you lower your LDL cholesterol by about 39 points, you can live for years. Exercise for a lifetime can increase your life expectancy by just six months. Stopping smoking can take nine months. However, if you lower your LDL cholesterol by about 39 points, you can live for years. As you can see here, in my video you can achieve it at 5:30, within just two weeks of eating a diet packed with fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Want to know what’s better than medicine? “The controversy over this broad expansion of statin therapy has lost something important and fundamental. … It is essential for doctors (and drug labels) to inform patients that not only lipid (cholesterol) levels, but also cardiovascular risk can be significantly reduced by adoption of plant-based nutritional patterns. Also, obesity, hypertension, systemic inflammation, insulin sensitivity, oxidative stress, endothelial function, thrombosis, cardiovascular events… The importance of this (plant-based) approach is expanded when considering the “side effects” of a plant-based diet – loss of heating, improved energy, and the “side effects” of a life-quality diet, in contrast to statins.
