MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of cholesterol lowering with simvastatin in 20 536 high-risk individuals: a randomised placebocontrolled trial

“The implications of these findings are profound. Practically all patients with vascular disease today in western countries will benefit from statins.”

“It still requires a conceptual shift that normal [cholesterol] is not normal...and that's going to be hard for doctors because it requires a shift in the way we think. We're very used to measuring something and responding to a measurement and I think it's going to take years to actually get people out of that mindset. We've been working towards it with blood pressure and we've now got to move towards it with cholesterol.”

“If we could get people to think of an LDL of 95mg/dL as equivalent to 10 cigarettes a day, and a level of 130 as 20 a day, we are trying to get people down to zero per day.”