Statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure: pharmacological mechanisms.

[Warpy]

2. I say that I have a few friends my age who would not be alive without them.

Parents and grandparents had all died in their 30s and 40s from stroke and heart disease. Once we developed a way to measure cholesterol load, we discovered that there is a population out there whose normal cholesterol readings even in childhood are >300 and often much higher, with family histories remarkable for early death from heart disease and stroke.

The statin drugs have been life savers for them.

Whether they are of any benefit to people with normal cholesterol but a history of either heart disease or stroke is still up for debate, a lot of it.