One has to know what they are doing to actually reduce risk. Early studies were, I believe confounded by folks who should not have been treated.
My experience is limited but my patients have had very few side effects. It occurs to me that patients who could not tolerate the statins because of myalgias may not have been appropriate in the first place.
“One has to know what they are doing to actually reduce risk. Early studies were, I believe confounded by folks who should not have been treated.”
Well, I’m not sure that it is possible to ever completely know how statins work to reduce CV risk. In addition to LDL reductions, they do also appear to reduce inflammatory factors such as hs c-rp. Some believe the atherosclerosis is as much a function of inflammatory factors as high lipids. Early studies included both primary prevention and secondary prevention trials. Even the early studies with pravastatin demonstrated ~30% relative risk reductions, and that was with moderate LDL reductions.