[Cardiovascular prevention in the sportsman: a role for statins?].

Official guidelines bring regularly the physician to consider a statin treatment in physically active individuals, including athletes. Several factors speak against such an attitude: the available risk scores are far from precise and do not sufficiently take into account lifestyle; when you correct for the level of physical activity, cholesterol loses its' predictive value; physical activity diminishing cardiovascular risk by at least a factor 2, an athlete is always at low risk. In addition, the secondary effects of statins are liable to interfere significantly with sport activities, paradoxically increasing the risk. Statin prescription should not be envisaged in athletes.