According to an article in the Daily Mail, Statins which were designed to help protect people from heart failure could actually increase the risk of having a heart attack say researchers of a report published in ‘Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology’. Professor Harumi Okuyama, of Nagoya City University, Japan, told the Sunday Express: ‘We have collected a wealth of information on cholesterol and statins from many published papers and find overwhelming evidence that these drugs accelerate hardening of the arteries and can cause, or worsen, heart failure.’
We asked Stephen OHara, OptiBiotix Health Plc (LON:OPTI) CEO for his thoughts: ‘Whilst this appears to be speculative reporting this article in the Mail reflects increasing concern about side affects from statins. Whilst many users will benefit from statins an increasing number are likely to look to for alternative treatment options. There is growing interest in healthcare in the use of agents which supplement existing treatment options in having mechanisms which work complementary to statins. This creates the potential to lower statin dosage, reduce cost, improve statin compliance and limit potential side effects. This is likely to increase interest is products such as OptiBiotix’s cholesterol reducing microbial supplement’.
