Free Statins With Fast Food Could Neutralize Heart Risk
Fast food outlets could provide statin drugs free of charge so that customers can reduce the heart disease dangers of fatty food, researchers at Imperial College London suggest in a newstudy．
Statins reduce the amount of unhealthy ”LDL” cholesterol in the blood. A wealth of trial data has proven them to be highly effective at lowering a person’s heart attack risk .
In a paper published in the American Journal of Cardiology，Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues calculate that the reduction in heart attack risk offered by a statin is enough to offset the increase in heart attack risk from eating a cheeseburger and drinking a milkshake．
Dr Francis，from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London，who is the senior author of the study, said:”Statins don’t cut out a11 of the unhealthy effects of cheeseburgers and French fries．It’s better to avoid fatty food altogether．But we’ve worked out that in terms of your possibility of having a heart attack. Taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it.” “It’s ironic that people are free to take as many unhealthv condiments in fast food outlets as they like , but statins, which are beneficial to heart health, have to be prescribed. It makes sense to make risk-reducing statins available just as easily as the unhealthy condiments that are provided free of charge．It would cost less than 5 pence per customer 一not much different to a sachet of sugar.” Dr Francis said．
When people engage in risky behaviours like driving or smoking, they’re encouraged to take measures that lower their risk, 1ike wearing a seatbelt or choosing cigarettes with filters. Taking a statin is a rational way of lowering some of the risks of eating a fatty meal．
Fast food outlets could provide statin drugs free of charge so that customers can reduce the heart disease dangers of fatty food, researchers at Imperial College London suggest in a newstudy．
Statins reduce the amount of unhealthy ”LDL” cholesterol in the blood. A wealth of trial data has proven them to be highly effective at lowering a person’s heart attack risk .
In a paper published in the American Journal of Cardiology，Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues calculate that the reduction in heart attack risk offered by a statin is enough to offset the increase in heart attack risk from eating a cheeseburger and drinking a milkshake．
Dr Francis，from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London，who is the senior author of the study, said:”Statins don’t cut out a11 of the unhealthy effects of cheeseburgers and French fries．It’s better to avoid fatty food altogether．But we’ve worked out that in terms of your possibility of having a heart attack. Taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it.” “It’s ironic that people are free to take as many unhealthv condiments in fast food outlets as they like , but statins, which are beneficial to heart health, have to be prescribed. It makes sense to make risk-reducing statins available just as easily as the unhealthy condiments that are provided free of charge．It would cost less than 5 pence per customer 一not much different to a sachet of sugar.” Dr Francis said．
When people engage in risky behaviours like driving or smoking, they’re encouraged to take measures that lower their risk, 1ike wearing a seatbelt or choosing cigarettes with filters. Taking a statin is a rational way of lowering some of the risks of eating a fatty meal．