This is an episode of Drug Story, a podcast by Thomas Goetz. You can find the rest of the series at https://www.drugstory.co/podcast

Once you turn 40, it seems like half the people you know are taking a statin drug. You know, because their cholesterol is high, and to prevent heart disease down the line. It makes sense: better safe than sorry. This is a huge triumph for preventive medicine. Statin drugs have saved (or improved) the lives of millions of people because they acted early. This is how medicine (and public health) is supposed to work.

But the devil is in the details. Like all drugs, statins have side effects. And when they are prescribed for many millions of people, the math means that millions of people will not, in fact, get any benefit from the drug. It turns out that atorvastatin (and other statin drugs) may be the most over-prescribed drugs in the history of medicine. And therein lies a Drug Story. This episode includes perspective from Rita Redberg, MD, cardiologist and former editor in chief at JAMA Internal Medicine.