Short Article - Archives in Food and Nutrition (2018) Volume 1, Issue 2

Why South-East Asia does not need Statins: The sunshine Vitamin D lowers Cholesterol

Abstract

Today, Statins, also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, are a class of lipid-lowering medications, one of the most commonly prescribed classes of drugs to lower cholesterol with sales estimated to approach $1 trillion by 2020. Despite the widespread use of statins to lower cholesterol and reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, half of patients prescribed statins in primary care fail to reach healthy cholesterol levels after two years of treatment with these drugs. Drugs like Atorvastatin (Lipitor) and Fluvastatin (Lescol) and others provide little value to people without heart disease. Used in this way; statins are not only of low value care, but in many cases, represent a waste of health care resources and may even have undesirable side effects. Yet these heart-healthy users represent a sizable number of statin users.