THURSDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Be discreet of buying the cholesterol-lowering drugs known in the same proportion that statins on the Internet, British researchers affirm.

Common statins such as Lipitor, Crestor or Zocor may not exist the same as advertised and sites ofttimes don't include warnings about border effects or even require a direction, the researchers noted.

"A potential purchaser of statins in the U.K., in what place one can only legally receive them adhering a doctor's prescription, searching the cob~ for product, is likely to come into collision sites from a wide geographical base and of in the main poor quality," said lead researcher David Brown, from the School of pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Portsmouth.

"Potentially, customers who become prevalent statins in this way, without their learned man's prescription, may not be convinced of potential side effects and may constrain themselves in harm's way," he added.

The public character was published Feb. 2 in the diary Pharmacoepidemiology & drug Safety.

For the study, Brown's team looked at 184 Internet sites offering statins.

"Information necessary for safe practice of the product was often meanly presented and in the majority of cases, incomplete," Brown said. "Where present, side force information such as warnings, contraindications and feasible side effects was in general, unstructured and unhelpful."

They set that more than 92 percent of these sites did not contain information on contraindications for statins. In joining, another 47 percent didn't comprehend information on drugs that shouldn't exist taken along with statins.

Moreover, up to 96 percent of the sites didn't hold information on adverse symptoms to watch with~ for, including myopathy, liver disease, hypersensitivity and pancreatitis, the researchers place.

Only 7 percent of the sites listed quite known side effects and only 65 percent described some side effects in lay language, they added.

Dr. Laurence Gardner, a professor of medicine and executive dean for education and policy at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, afore~ that this is not really a enigma in the United States.

"There are countries that give leave to you buy statins without a of the healing art exam or a prescription," Gardner before-mentioned. "In this day and age, that's nuts."

In the United States, true high-potency generic statins are useful for $4 a month from blustering box stores, he said. "So, it's unthinkable. that you can buy them cheaper."

"Moreover, there are enough side effects from these drugs that it requires at least a modest amount of physician inattention," he said.

In addition, people attractive statins need to have their cholesterol monitored to subsist sure they are hitting target levels and whether the prescribed portion of the drug needs to be adjusted, he said.

When buying recipe drugs on the Internet, the U.S. Food and unsalable article Administration advises:

Be sure the locality requires a prescription and has a pharmacist available to answer your questions.

Buy only from licensed pharmacies in the United States.

Don't accord. personal information like credit card song unless you are sure the seat won't release them.

More knowledge of facts

For more about buying drugs adhering the Internet, visit the U.S. Food and remedy Administration.

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