The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Statins increase the incidence of liver damage

This post includes a synopsis of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine 2006; 355:549-559 August 10, 2006

Study title and authors:
High-Dose Atorvastatin after Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack
Karam JG et al The Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels (SPARCL) Investigators
This study can be accessed at: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa061894

The study divided up 4731 patients who had had a stroke into 2 groups who had treatment of either (i) 80 mg of a statin drug per day or (ii) placebo.

Elevated liver enzymes may indicate the liver is damaged.

The study found:
(a) The statin group had a 66% higher incidence of  hemorrhagic strokes.
(b) The statin group had a 2.31% more deaths.
(c) Elevated liver enzyme values were more common in patients taking statins.