Fears about medicine pose health risk

Misconceptions about the side effects of lipid-lowering drugs, statin, are stalling many patients from reaching their cholesterol goals, putting them at risk of heart diseases and stroke, said a cardiologist. According to Dr Joseph Kurian, head of cardiology at Lifeline Hospital, patients are deterred from taking high doses of statin because of the side effects they read on the Internet. He explained that some of the side effects are “not very serious” compared to the risk of heart attack. “The side effects are blown out of proportion,” he stated, citing increase in muscle and liver enzymes as some of the side effects. “When you give a statin, there could be a little increase in the liver enzyme and that’s not a serious problem at all. That just shows you that the drug is working well. Nobody has died due to a liver failure from statin despite millions of people using it,” he pointed out. He was speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Lifeline Hospital’s first International Annual Conference in the Capital on Thursday. Citing the results of the CEPEUS study or Centralised Pan-European survey on the under-treatment of hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), Dr Kurian said almost 50 per cent of the 5,300 patients on statin treatment in the region did not reach their cholesterol goals. “Their cholesterol levels were not that good, they need to be treated much more intensively,” he stressed. “Those with established heart disease need to go for higher doses (40mg–80mg) for better benefit. But those with diabetes or blood pressure, you don’t have to go for that aggressive dose, you can go for the lower doses of 10-20 mg,” he said. But encouraging patients to take the higher doses as required by their treatment is not easy, Dr Kurian said. This boils down to the doctor-patient relationship. “As the relationship grows, the patient will be (more) willing to accept your recommendation. As trust of the patient in the doctor increases, they will be willing to accept the dose... and stick to the treatment,” he concluded.