Soon after Joseph Francis learned that his levels of bad' LDL cholesterol sat at twice the norm, he discovered the shortcomings of cholesterol-lowering drugs - and of the clinical advice guiding their use. Francis, the director of clinical analysis and reporting at the Veterans Health Administration (VA) in Washington DC, started taking Lipitor (atorv-astatin), a cholesterol-lowering statin and the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. His LDL plummeted, but still hovered just above a target mandated by clinical guidelines. Adding other medications had no effect, and upping the dose of Lipitor made his muscles hurt - a rare side effect of statins, which can cause muscle breakdown.
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