You remember when your mama said “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!”  That may be the case with the Jupiter Study, the study of 18,000 people with normal cholesterol but high CRP levels.  Test subjects taking Crestor appeared to lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and the need for bypass or angioplasty.  Perhaps the name says it all; Jupiter stands for “Justification for the Use of Statins In Prevention.”  (One of the first rules of studies is NOT to set out to justify something.)  They went into it saying “We want to justify using this drug for prevention!”  Then there’s the matter of the test subjects – they’re not a typical bunch since high CRP usually goes with high cholesterol.  They’re a fringe group,  you might say, not typical.  Then there’s the fact that the placebo group had a higher incidence of family history of high cholesterol and metabolic syndrome, and the fact that 25% of test subjects weren’t taking their medication at the end and we don’t know what group they were in, and the fact that the Crestor group developed more diabetes and the fact that they ended the study early before the diabetes group could possibly catch up with the lower heart risk group.  Things that make you go hmmmmm. 

My initial uncritical reaction to the media hype about the study was to request some free samples at my next doctor visit.  Away I went, promotional packets in hand, excited about the possibility of outsmarting my borderline cholesterol by throwing down a pill!  By the second week of use, I was dragging myself up the stairs and my legs felt soooo sore and heavy.  That’s when I remembered the warning to “discontinue use if unusual muscle pain occurs” and returned the remaining samples to my doctor.  Adios Crestor.  Oh, well back to the old eating right, exercising, and watching my salt intake.