BRITONS are so unhealthy that much of the population would have to take cholesterol-lowering drugs to make a significant impact on rates of heart disease, say researchers.
Statins, which are highly effective at cutting cholesterol levels, are currently reserved for high risk patients in the UK.
These are men and women who have had a previous heart attack or stroke, or whose cholesterol levels are far higher than normal.
But new research published today in the journal Heart suggests that Government guidelines for statin treatment are too restrictive to have any major effect on the nation's health.
Experts calculated that cutting the rate of heart attacks and strokes by an appreciable amount would necessitate treating most men from middle age onwards, and most older women. However this would be an enormous drain on NHS resources, and risk turning "healthy" people into patients.
The average cost of statin treatment is £152 per patient per year. So treating the 10m British citizens over the age of 65 alone would cost an estimated £1.5bn annually.
The researchers, led by Professor Paul Durrington, from Manchester Royal Infirmary, wrote, "Whether cholesterol lowering on such a scale should be attempted with drugs raises philosophical, psychological and economic considerations, particularly in view of the high likelihood of individual benefit from statin treatment."
The researchers said the controversy surrounding statin treatment would not exist if people were healthier and had lower levels of cholesterol.