{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Hard Drugs","title":"Should everyone be taking statins?","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/b19b3b4a\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":10487,"description":"Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, but it’s also one of medicine’s biggest success stories. Since the 1950s, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease has fallen dramatically, thanks to public health efforts, emergency care, medical innovation, and surgeries.\nIn this episode, Jacob and Saloni explore the cholesterol revolution: from statins discovered in fungi to new drugs that cut LDL cholesterol by 60% and last for months, driven by breakthroughs in genetics, monoclonal antibodies, RNA therapies, and modern medicinal chemistry. They talk about how cholesterol travels through the bloodstream, how it causes atherosclerosis and heart disease, and why it took nearly a century for scientists to form the consensus that lowering cholesterol saves lives.\nHard Drugs is a podcast from Works in Progress and Coefficient Giving about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.\nYou can watch or listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.\nChapters: \n0:00:00 Introduction\n13:35 The decline in heart disease mortality\n31:02 Surprising facts about cholesterol\n55:40 The lipid hypothesis: 7 lines of evidence for the harms of LDL cholesterol\n1:22:15 How cholesterol works\n1:30:40 The discovery of statins\n1:48:44 Should everyone be on statins?\n1:57:10 PCSK9 drugs and beyond\n2:22:56 Summary \nSaloni’s substack newsletter: https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/\n\nJacob’s blog: https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/ \nAcknowledgements:\nAria Babu, editor at Works in Progress\nGraham Bessellieu, video editor\nAbhishaike Mahajan, cover art\nAtalanta Arden-Miller, art direction\nDavid Hackett, composer\nWorks in Progress & Coefficient Giving\nCorrection: In the episode, Saloni makes an error in converting the number of heartbeats per lifetime. It is roughly 2.5 billion beats, not a trillion.\nBooks\nDaniel Steinberg (2007) The Cholesterol Wars.\nJie Jack Li (2009) Triumph of the Heart: The Story of Statins.\nBlog posts\nJames Stein (2025) Lipid and lipoprotein...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/bBbAA3-An3hw3uv_Sf647ZQV-IpESOooEROiyEp4Ytg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81MzM2/YTc5NmRlZGI2Zjhi/YWM2ZDk4MzBhZjg4/YTRjMi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}