The 4p pill can save millions of people from various health problems, including heart attacks or strokes.
Around 18 million people in the UK may be taking statins, including men over 60 and women over 65.
About eight million adults take it every day, but many still stop taking the pill.
Side effects of taking statins, including muscle aches, have made them somewhat reluctant to take them, although these symptoms are contested.
Some diseases are more likely to be caused by aging, a major new study has found.
As a result, doctors have been encouraged to give patients more confidence, believing that millions of people take it when prescribed, reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke.
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(Getty Images/iStock Photo)A small clinical trial of 12 patients at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Center in Glasgow found that statins, when used with certain hormonal treatments, can help reduce tumor growth in prostate cancer patients, the Sun reported.
"Statins are extremely powerful in preventing heart disease, but many people don't take them because of concerns about side effects," says Darrell Francis, MD, professor of cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute.
"If people think statins make them sick, they stop taking them.
"The end result is they have a heart attack or a stroke and they die. They die for no good reason and because they are misinformed."
The study, presented recently at the European Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona, administered a statin or a placebo to 155,000 people.
Muscle pain was reported by 27.1% of actual statin users, compared to 26.6% of those taking the placebo.
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(Fake Images)"This means that when a patient takes a statin, more than 90% of muscle pain is not due to that drug. It is very unpleasant and nobody wants to experience muscle pain, but these drugs can save your life," said Professor Francis said.
Statins are a group of drugs that help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in the blood, according to the NHS.
LDL cholesterol is often called "bad cholesterol" and statistics reduce its production in the liver.
Statins come in pills that you take once a day, and it doesn't matter what time you take them for some types of statins, as long as you take them for the same amount of time.
However, some types of statins need to be taken at night, and it is always worth checking with your GP if there is a specific time when you should take them.
Many people who take statins experience little or no side effects, while others experience troublesome but usually minor side effects, such as diarrhea, headache, or nausea.
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(Getty Images/iStock Photo)A review of scientific studies on the effectiveness of statins showed that one in 50 people who took statins for five years avoided serious events such as a heart attack or stroke.
There have been concerns about the use of statins in the past.
For example, a 2017 study found that statins increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, although many experts acknowledge the study's limitations.
Professor Peter Weisberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said study participants who developed diabetes early had symptoms of the disease earlier than those who did not.
These recommended statins can easily make people already at risk worse, and the study didn't look at what happened next.
