I think they are useful but over prescribed....they are useful for extremely high levels of cholesterol but I think with more mildly elevated levels the patient should be told to watch their weight and diet and take a walk now and then!
True. I see caravans of SUV's at the local Executive Shores Luxury Estates lined up waiting for the school bus, so the children do not have to walk 300 Yards, and wonder why no one is concerned about them as they pant and waddle from one vehicle to the other.
If only people would use stairs once in a while, rather than taking an elevator for a floor or two, or even get a dog to walk, so many of these problems could be avoided.
There are some people who simply synthesize a lot of cholesterols, and dieting is not enough, and maybe for them, some intervention is needed. I have a sister who is a health nut, runs road races, and essentially eats lettuce, and she has high cholesterol~220, so in some cases it has nothing to do with eating cheeseburgers.
But the wholesale mass prescriptions must have to be raising eyebrows, somewhere.