The second episode carried a warning that it should “not be taken as medical advice”. Results of the survey of GPs by market research company Cegedim. Heart Foundation national director of cardiovascular health Rob Grenfell said the results were "frightening". “The number of calls that clinics and pharmacies received after the show was phenomenal,” he said. “What's alarming, and this appears to be a general human trait, is if someone tells us to take [medications] we have a real reluctance to do it – you look for any possible reason whatsoever to stop it. “The converse is that when somebody suggests you take some extract of something or miracle cure, you will just take it with blind faith and based on far less evidence.”

He said the Heart Foundation was in the process of making a complaint about Catalyst to the ABC board. Since the two-part report was aired last week and the week before, the programs have been rounded on by experts for distorting medical research by downplaying the benefits of the drugs in people at high risk of heart disease, and overplaying the risks. The shows relied heavily on US "experts", without disclosing that some promoted their own diet programs and supplements and believed in implausible and controversial theories, including that electrons absorbed through the earth by skin will improve health and that vaccines can cause autism. On Monday night, the ABC's Media Watch program described the shows as “sensationalist and grossly unbalanced”. The survey was commissioned by Merck Sharp & Dohme - which created the first statin in the early 1980s - and undertaken by market research company Cegedim, which surveyed 150 doctors.

It found 40 per cent of patients asking about statins had already stopped taking them, and the remaining 60 per cent wanted to stop. About 58 per cent of those patients were considered to be at high risk of heart attack or stroke. “These are people who should be on medications,” Dr Grenfell said. “If your risk is greater than 20 per cent – that is, you have a one in five chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years – you should be treated.” People with elevated cholesterol levels but a lower risk of heart attack because they do not have other risk factors such as diabetes or high blood pressure, should still take steps to improve their health. But Dr Grenfell said it was difficult for GPs to help people implement lifestyle changes, as many factors were out of their control.

“That's why we have been calling for reform of the food supply,” he said. “It's very hard to make these changes when you are living in a sea of excess.”