Word: risked
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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Even acknowledging the lack of data, however, researchers like Dr. Scott Grundy of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have long argued that statins should be prescribed to women at moderately high risk for heart disease. Grundy says the underrepresentation of women in drug trials does not discount statins' benefit; it results only in a failure to show a statistically significant effect. Grundy was one of the authors of the 2001 national guidelines for lowering cholesterol and the 2004 revisions that greatly expanded the use of statins - and were criticized because of his and other authors' ties...
...sought to compare the effectiveness of the statin Crestor (rosuvastatin) with that of a placebo in healthy patients. The study, which ended in 2008, involved nearly 18,000 participants - including 6,801 women, more than in any previous statin trial - who had high levels of C-reactive protein, a risk factor for heart disease, but did not have high cholesterol...
Other researchers say that evidence is muddy. The reduction in cardiovascular events sounds impressive until you take a closer look. Men taking Crestor had a lower risk of hard events, including fatal and nonfatal heart attack and stroke. But the only statistically significant benefits for women treated with Crestor involved less extreme end points, like hospitalization for unstable chest pain and arterial revascularization (a category of procedures that includes major surgery). To prevent one event, 36 women would need to take the statin for five years - a modest result, critics...
...Risk Profile, StupidWhy statins fail to show equal benefits for men and women is unclear, but one reason may be that women are simply at lower risk of heart disease than men. You would need a powerful treatment to lower an already low risk. Researchers also don't know why women are more likely than men to suffer side effects from statins and many other drugs but posit that lower body weight and hormonal fluctuations play a role. Biological explanations aside, the larger point is the same: with any treatment, the benefits should outweigh the risks...
...seems unperturbed by criticism of the Jupiter trial. In February, on the basis of Jupiter data, the agency expanded the eligible patient population for Crestor to include older healthy at-risk adults. The move could increase the number of women taking statins by many millions, according to calculations by Dr. Jon Keevil of the University of Wisconsin. Researchers will continue to disagree over whether that is heartening news...