In this long-term, multicentre randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (in other words the “gold standard” of quality) Professor Koon Teo et al evaluated the effects of Simvastatin in patients with normal cholesterol levels & with detectable plaque build-up in at least three major coronary artery segments.
(If you believe cholesterol causes plaque in arteries you should already be questioning how the trial participants could have 3 furred-arteries if their cholesterol is normal).
Professor Teo is an expert in directing clinical trials and epidemiology studies in cardiovascular disease and he wanted to understand the long-term effects of cholesterol-lowering and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition (that is just the medical term for what all statins do) on coronary atherosclerosis (artery wall thickening).
This trial was called The Simvastatin/Enalapril Coronary Atherosclerosis Trial (SCAT) Circulation 2000 Oct 10;102(15):1748-54
Professor Two took 460 patients over 4 years and gave 230 of them Simvastatin and 230 a placebo.
The findings were:
The patients receiving Simvastatin had a:
117% increased risk of death compared to the patients receiving a placebo.
76% increased risk of cardiac death compared to the patients receiving a placebo.
225% increased risk of non-cardiac death compared to the patients receiving a placebo.
9% increased risk of heart attack compared to the patients receiving a placebo.
78% increased risk of cancer compared to the patients receiving a placebo.
Links to the charts with the data on the results can be found here: