Saturated fat is not the major issue

This Observations article (BMJ 2013;347:f6340, doi:10.1136/bmj.f6340) by Aseem Malhotra stated that a recent “real world” study of 150 000 patients who were taking statins showed “unacceptable” side effects—including myalgia, gastrointestinal upset, sleep and memory disturbance, and erectile dysfunction—in 20% of participants. The author withdraws this statement. Although it was based on statements in the referenced observational study by Zhang and colleagues that “the rate of reported statin-related events to statins was nearly 18%,”1 the article did not reflect necessary caveats and did not take sufficient account of the uncontrolled nature of the study.