BRIAN Howarth used to be a reasonably fit and energetic pensioner who regularly walked two miles a day.

But when his leg muscles started seizing up in 2002 he went back to his GP and asked if there was anything he could do.

That was back in 2005 when Brian, who lives in Consett, County Durham, was 76.

Three years earlier his GP told him that he was going to put him on statins, a new drug being hailed as a lifesaver.

Initially given to patients who were at risk of heart attack or stroke, statins work by reducing the build-up of fatty plaques in the blood vessels which lead to blockages.

His GP advised Brian that he should try using a walking stick. He was more concerned that Brian had felt chest pains and referred him to the University Hospital of North Durham chest pain clinic.

“I told the consultant at the chest pain clinic about my muscles seizing up. They asked me to stand up and I couldn’t move my legs," he recalls.

But it was something he said which made Brian stop taking statins.

“The consultant asked me if I was on any medication and I said I was on statins. He told me it was well known that statins damage your muscles so I stopped taking them.”

That was in late 2006. Seven months later he was seen by a rheumatologist and then a neurologist.

“I eventually saw a neurologist at Newcastle General and then the RVI. I told him I have always felt that statins have something to do with my leg weakness. That’s when he told me I had suffered statin-induced myopathy, which had damaged my muscles.”

That was in 2008 and since then Brian, who is now 84, has been doing his best to warn people about statins.

What amazes Brian is that the medicines regulator, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has issued new advice to doctors urging them to offer statins to millions more patients, even though many of them are at a low risk of heart attack or stroke.

Currently around 13 million people are suitable for statins. By changing the guidelines it is thought that another 4.5 million people will be suitable, although some will chose not to take them.

Nice says that widening the prescription of statins will save up to 4,000 lives a year as well as preventing 8,000 strokes and 14,000 non-fatal heart attacks over three years.

In June a group of leading doctors and scientists wrote to Nice warning that side-effects had been underestimated and that it would not be a good use of NHS resources.

The letter warned that the draft advice from Nice - which has been confirmed by the watchdog – was over reliant on drug trials sponsored by the industry, which “grossly underestimate adverse effects.”

The letter added that the benefits among the low-risk population “do not justify putting approximately five million more people on drugs that will then have to be taken lifelong.”

Professor Simon Capewell, a clinical epidemiologist at Liverpool University, who also signed the letter, said the statin recommendations “steal huge funds from a cash-strapped NHS and they steal attention from the major responsibilities that government and food industry have to promote healthier life choices.”

Brian points to the NHS’s own advice website - NHS Choices - which points out that one in ten taking statins can expect to have “common side-effects” ranging from increased risk of diabetes or muscle and joint pain.

Uncommon side-effects, said to affect up to one in 100 people, range from tiredness, sickness, blurred vision or inflammation of the liver or pancreas.

Interestingly there is also a section on the link between stains and muscle inflammation and damage.

Brian is convinced that the risk is too great and feels “a victim of statistics”.

“I do think Nice have got this wrong,” he adds. “All I want is for the people of the North-East to be aware of this risk.”