'Give out statins with junk food' (UK)

Fast food outlets should consider handing out cholesterol-lowering drugs to combat the effects of fatty food, say UK researchers. Taking a statin pill every day would offset the harm caused by a daily cheeseburger and milkshake, the Imperial College London team said. It would only cost 5p a customer - similar to a sachet of ketchup. But the British Heart Foundation warned an unhealthy diet does more harm than just raising cholesterol. Writing in the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues said it was about reducing harm in the same way that people who smoke are encouraged to use filters and those who drive are told to wear seatbelts. They took data from trials of almost 43,000 people to calculate whether the statins could override the effects of eating a junk food diet - BBC