A few weeks ago at an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago, new guidelines were issued for treating high cholesterol. It ws the first big update since 2013. Past guidelines have said more and more of us should take cholesterol-lowering drugs called “statins” to prevent heart attacks and save lives. But the recommendations aren’t without controversy. And they raise a larger debate in medicine— over who’s paying the doctors and groups deciding what’s good for us.

Our search to learn about the Statin Wars takes us to the town wharf in South Freeport, Maine where we catch a ferry to Bustins Island. That’s where we find one of the foremost experts in the whole controversy over statin drugs: Harvard’s Dr. John Abramson.

Watch the video and read the Full Measure investigation here: https://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/the-statins-war