Probably not the message that multi-national burger chains will be putting out to customers any time soon, but it is precisely what a group of researchers from Imperial College London suggests you should be able to do at fast food outlets as a way to offset the increase in heart attack risk from eating junk food.
The report, published in the American Journal of Cardiology calculates that the reduction in cardiovascular risk offered by a statin is enough to compensate for the increase in heart attack risk from eating a hamburger with cheese and a small milkshake.
Senior author Dr Darrel Francis, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, said “Statins don’t cut out all of the unhealthy effects of burgers and fries. It’s better to avoid fatty food altogether”
“But we’ve worked out that in terms of your likelihood of having a heart attack, taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it,” he added.
However, experts from the British Heart Foundation say that “McStatin” is not the antidote to junk food.
Their medical director, Professor Peter Weissberg, said in a statement that “The suggestion that the harmful effects of a junk food meal might be erased by taking a cholesterol-lowering statin tablet should not be taken literally.”
Source: Medical News Today