In a shocking article (well, not to me) in the esteemed journal Archives of Internal Medicine, statin drugs didn’t seem to really make much of a difference in saving lives or preventing coronary heart disease, especially in healthy people.

For example, an analysis of seven previous trials involving nearly 43,000 adults aged 55 to 75 found that the average adult had a nearly 6 percent chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke over a 4 1/3-year period, compared with a 4 percent risk among those who took statins.

“Therefore, 60 patients would need to be treated for an average of 4.3 years to prevent one major coronary event,” the study’s author, Dr. Paaladinesh Thavendiranathan of the University of Toronto, wrote in the article.

To prevent a single stroke, 268 people would need to undergo statin treatment, and to prevent one nonfatal heart attack 61 would have to take the drugs, he added.

Moreover, statin use did not improve the overall risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or from other causes, the analysis found. 

Well, well the wonder drug is not so wonderful after all.