Statins for all

The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has issued new guidelines on lipid lowering. The headlines are: lower the treatment threshold for primary prevention to people with a 10 year risk of 10%, use atorvastatin preferentially, and use the Qrisk assessment tool.1 This guidance, authored by a small group of important cholesterol specialists, is surely a scientific and thought through analysis of the research data. Shouldn’t we embrace such authoritative advice?

The guidelines rely on a simplistic model of the cause of ischaemic heart disease, assuming that its decline is merely the result of a reduction …