- Sir Magdi Yacoub called for drug to be sold over the counter
- The call comes after claims statins caused harmful side effects
- He told BBC Radio 4 all over-40s should take the drug daily
Britain's top heart doctor has called for statins to be sold over the counter, saying that not taking them is a ‘disaster’.
Sir Magdi Yacoub told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that everyone over 40 should take the cholesterol-lowering drugs daily.
His
call comes after claims that statins caused harmful side effects in 20
per cent of users were withdrawn by their authors after articles
appeared in the British Medical Journal.
The UK's top heart surgeon, Sir Magdi Yacoub,
told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that everyone over 40 should take
cholesterol-lowering drugs daily
Sir Magdi, who was awarded an honour of merit in the most recent new year's honours list, said: ‘Not to take statins is a disaster.
'The risk benefit ratio is massively in favour.
'Doctors don’t even have to prescribe them, there is a move that people can buy them themselves.’
The
leading medical journal overstated the dangers of taking statins and
said the drugs cause side effects in one in five patients.
It
is feared the articles could discourage patients from taking the
life-saving medicines, which are prescribed to millions in the UK.
The
journal recently blamed internal and external reviewers for failing to
pick up the mistakes and pledged an independent investigation to
determine whether the articles should be retracted completely.
Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub (second right) with his
wife Lady Marianne Yacoub (second left) and daughters Sophie (left) and
Lisa (rigt) after receiving his knighthood at Buckingham Palace in 1991
The UK is the top prescriber of statins in Europe, and second only to Australia in the developed world.
More
than a million prescriptions for the cholesterol-busting drugs are
written each week in England, compared with a few thousand in 1981.
Doctors
used to prescribe statins only to patients with a 30 per cent risk of a
heart attack within the next decade, but this was cut to a 20 per cent
risk in 2005.
Under guidance being proposed, the threshold would be lowered to 10 per cent.
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