Information for Patients: Statins are Very Important to Prevent Heart Attack
Statins are proven to benefit patients who have heart artery disease. The evidence is clear. People who don’t take a statin after a heart attack are 50% more likely to have a second heart attack. Statin benefit in this setting has been confirmed in hundreds of journal articles and a mountain of research. When statins are combined with other proven medications in patients with heart artery disease they reduce death from a heart attack by up to 90%.
Here is the problem. Thirty percent of patients after a heart attack are not prescribed a statin. Only 13% were discharged on a powerful statin like atorvastatin 40 mg. Most patients in usual care—the care that most patients receive—are not taking a statin dose that is strong enough to protect them. That is one of the easiest problems to fix. If you have heart artery disease, one of the most important things you can do is take a high enough dose of a powerful statin. Atorvastatin 40mg is inexpensive and powerful enough to do the job. If you have side effects from that, try rosuvastatin 20mg. If you still have trouble reduce the dose. Even a weaker dose of a less powerful statin is beneficial. One of the most important things a person with heart artery disease can do is to take some dose of some statin.