"My legs were so sore that, by the end of the day, I could barely stand," said Katherine Gutman.
But now, Gutman, 52, is eating healthy, exercising and painting again. Her doctor attributes her better health to getting off statin drugs.
"We went the statin route to try and lower my cholesterol," Gutman explained.
But according to Dr. Barbara H. Roberts, associate clinical professor of medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University and author of The Truth about Statins, the drugs can lead patients down a dangerous road.
"The truth about statins is that their benefits are vastly exaggerated and their dangers are highly underplayed," Roberts said.
Roberts said the side-effects, especially in women, include an increase in developing diabetes, muscle pain and weakness, kidney and liver damage, and cataracts, but the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend statins for millions who have or are at-risk for heart disease, saying in a news release, "No other cholesterol-lowering drug is as effective as statins."
"The vast majority of people who are put on statins, about 75 percent of them, are not put on it because they have vascular disease; they are put on it because they have risk factors," Roberts explained.
And Roberts argues those risk factors can be reduced by eating a Mediterranean diet, exercising, reducing stress, maintaining a normal weight and not smoking.
"I feel pretty lucky because my cholesterol really responded," said Gutman.
Without statins, Gutman's cholesterol levels went from 290 to 150, and she's feeling better than ever statin-free.
Roberts said the latest recommendations to put more people on statins are even more detrimental to women because they were under represented in clinical studies to evaluate statins.
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