Heart patients are falling victim to dangerous myths spread online about the sife-effects of lifesaving statins, experts have warned.
Just a day after Health Secretary Matt Hancock threatened to stop the spread of anti-vaccination lies on social media, US experts have warned that people at risk of heart attacks are giving up their statins over similar scares.
Cardiologists from Duke University in North Carolina said ‘public fear is out of proportion to the actual risks’ – and warned that ‘misconceptions are everywhere’.
Roughly 6million people in Britain take cholesterol-busting statins, preventing 80,000 heart attacks and strokes every year at the cost of roughly £20 a year per patient.
But another 6million should be taking the drugs but do not.
Cardiologists from Duke University in North Carolina said ‘public fear is out of proportion to the actual risks’ – and warned that ‘misconceptions are everywhere’
Doctors believe tens of thousands of people die in Britain every year because they shun the pills – worried about scare stories and false myths about side effects such as muscle pain, sleep problems, erectile dysfunction and cognitive impairment.
US experts today warned these false fears are being amplified by social media, with patients wrongly believing the pills cause liver damage and memory loss.
The researchers, writing in the Journal of the American Heart Association, tracked 5,700 American pensioners who were eligible for statins.
They found a quarter of people who should be on the drugs were not taking them – and of these one in ten had turned them down and one in three started the pills but then stopped taking them.
‘Fear of side effects and perceived side effects were the most common reasons cited for declining or discontinuing a statin,’ the researchers wrote.
Dr Ann Marie Navar, senior author of the study, said: ‘Misconceptions about statins are everywhere and are fuelled by false information on the internet. We need better tools to help combat this type of misinformation.
‘Although there are risks associated with statins, the public fear of side effects is out of proportion to the actual risks.’
Experts last night said the US fears echoed the situation in the UK.
Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said last night: ‘Previous research has shown that public controversy about statins has put people off taking them, even though there is abundant evidence that they significantly reduce the risk of a heart attack.
‘It is important that you don’t rely on social media for medical guidance.’
Statins are proven lifesavers, cutting cholesterol and reducing the risk of a heart attack or stroke – particular for people with diabetes or those already suffering from heart disease.
But experts warn an ongoing row over the side-effects and benefits of the drugs has muddied the water, leading many people to give up their drugs.
Professor Peter Sever of Imperial College London two years ago published major study in the Lancet which found most of these side effects were not actually caused by statins.
‘There are people out there who are dying because they’re not taking statins, and the numbers are large, the numbers are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands,’ he said at the time.
He said many people blame any ache and pain on the pills, because they have read in the accompanying leaflet that they cause muscle pain, when in actual fact they are nothing to do with the drugs.
Express stress there are some real side effects of statins, but these are rare.
These include myopathy, which results in severe muscle weakness, which is known to be suffered by one in 10,000 patients.
There is also a real risk of developing type two diabetes.
Dr Corey Bradley of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, lead author of the new study, said: ‘We need to focus our efforts on improving how doctors identify patients who need to be on a statin, and how they present information to patients to ensure that no one is missing the opportunity to improve their heart health.’ ‘Physicians should not hesitate to re-approach the conversation about starting or re-trying statin therapy in patients who could benefit but are currently not on the therapy.’
Experts are increasingly concerned about anti-vaccination myths being spread online – with measles outbreaks in the US and Europe linked to
Matt Hancock said social networking sites, of which the biggest include Facebook and Twitter, must police the spread of vaccination-deniers’ propaganda.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the cabinet minister suggested new legislation could be created to stop people from spreading misinformation about vaccines online.
‘This is exactly the sort of thing we should be spending our time on and talking about and, if necessary, legislating for,’ Mr Hancock said.
‘As a country we can make decisions on these sorts of things.
‘I want to see social media companies doing far, far more to take down this material which is so damaging.
‘Vaccines only work if almost everybody takes them,’ Mr Hancock added. ‘That is the whole point.
‘They are clearly the right thing to do, scientifically. There’s clear guidance from experts and doctors on that.
‘But online there are these pernicious messages being sent to people whether they search for terms about vaccines or not.
‘Sometimes just because they have got the right characteristics – maybe they have small children.
‘We need to make sure this misinformation or disinformation is stopped because it can be damaging to the public health.’
While the UK remains a world leader in vaccine coverage, rates have declined in nine of 12 vaccinations given routinely to children in England, latest figures show.
Uptake of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine is now at 87.5 percent against the 95 per cent that the World Health Organisation target, despite irrefutable evidence that it saves lives.
Earlier this year, the Royal Society for Public Health published a report saying social media has become a ‘breeding ground for misleading information’ about vaccinations.
Critics said any new legislation would also have to protect freedom of speech.
Official figures show 913 cases of measles in England between January and October last year – compared with 259 in the whole of the previous year.
Yesterday, Public Health England revealed more than 220 suspected cases of mumps have been reported at two universities.
Doctors said teenagers and young adults who had not had two doses of MMR vaccine were particularly vulnerable and were working with PHE to persuade unprotected students to get the jab.
The outbreak comes weeks after the head of the NHS said social media was giving vaccination-deniers a platform to spread myths about life-saving immunisations.
Simon Stevens said he was concerned by stalling vaccination uptake and the dangers these ‘fake messages’ posed to children’s health.
Mr Stevens said there was a need to ‘win the public argument’ around vaccines and that the NHS was considering what action could be taken to help stop the spread of anti-vaccination messages.
He said: ‘Frankly it’s as irresponsible to tell parents that their children shouldn’t be vaccinated as it is to say don’t bother – to your kids on their way to primary school – to look both ways when they cross the road.
‘As a health service we’ve really got to help support parents on this.’