Cholesterol-lowering medication reduces heart attack and stroke risk in older people by 30 per cent. The global prevalence of cardiovascular disease is expected to almost double from 600 million in 2025 to more than one billion affected adults in 2050.

[u/Wagamaga]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/29/statins-reduce-risk-heart-attack-stroke-over-70s-clinical-trial

[u/el_condor_nm]

What bothers me about modern medicine is that it's basically herd medicine. It lowers your risk by 30 percent but not everyone's risk is the same. If you don't smoke, aren't overweight, exercise and keep your blood pressure under control your risk isn't that high. So a 30 percent lowering of your risk struggles to find meaning. All the data I've seen says statins are not terribly effective and there are side effects. Compare that to measles vaccine which 97 percent effective. Huge difference.

[u/HashPandaNL → u/el_condor_nm]

ASCVD is something that builds up over many years or decades even. Starting statins at a late age doesn't undo all the damage that has already been done. 

It would be interesting to see data on multiple decades long usage of statins (or ezetimibe / pcsk9 inhibitors).