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Home > Anti-aging Research > Statins

Statins

Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin but check with your doctor first.  See iHerb red yeast rice products.

Related Topics:

• cholesterol / HDL cholesterol / homocysteine / inflammation / heart disease / strokes / red yeast rice / policosanol / guggul / pantethine / artichoke / red clover / inositol hexanicotinate / niacin / HMB / triglycerides / green tea / hesperidin / hypertension / trans fatty acids / omega-3

• Statins / Crestor (rosuvastatin) / Lescol (fluvastatin) / Lipitor (atorvastatin) / Livalo (pitavastatin) / Mevacor (lovastatin) / Pravachol (pravastatin) / Triliplix / Vytorin / Zocor (simvastatin)

Alternative News:

• Effects of n-3 fatty acids on major cardiovascular events in statin users and non-users with a history of myocardial infarction - Eur Heart J. 2012 Feb 1 - "In statin users, an additional amount of n-3 fatty acids did not reduce cardiovascular events [HR(adj) 1.02; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80, 1.31; P = 0.88]. In statin non-users, however, only 9% of those who received EPA-DHA plus ALA experienced an event compared with 18% in the placebo group ... In patients with a history of MI who are not treated with statins, low-dose supplementation with n-3 fatty acids may reduce major cardiovascular events. This study suggests that statin treatment modifies the effects of n-3 fatty acids on the incidence of major cardiovascular events" - See Mega Twin EPA at iHerb and Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.
• Gut bacteria may affect whether a statin drug lowers cholesterol - Science Daily, 10/13/11 - "Among the group who had a strong response to the drug, three bile acids appeared to play a role. The bile acids are produced by certain gut bacteria, which are increasingly understood as factories for chemicals that can contribute to a state of health. Among the people who responded poorly to the statin, five different bile acids were commonly evident ... new strategies could be developed to manipulate the gut microbiome using probiotics to spur different gut bacteria, which could then give the drugs a boost" - See probiotic products at iHerb.
• Statins reduce deaths from infection and respiratory illness, data eight years on from trial suggests - Science Daily, 8/28/11 - "In the lipid-lowering arm of the trial, over 10,000 patients in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia with high blood pressure were randomly allocated either atorvastatin or placebo between 1998 and 2000. In 2003, the trial was stopped early because the statin proved to be highly beneficial in preventing heart attacks and strokes. Since then, most participants from both groups have been taking statins ... The new analysis looked at the number and cause of deaths among the 4,605 participants in the ASCOT trial who are based in the UK. After 11 years' follow-up, overall mortality is 14 per cent lower in the group originally assigned atorvastatin, due largely to fewer deaths from infection and respiratory illness"
• Protective effect of lycopene on serum cholesterol and blood pressure: Meta-analyses of intervention trials - Maturitas. 2010 Dec 14 - "Lycopene, a carotenoid found in tomatoes ... Meta-analysis of the effect of lycopene on systolic blood pressure of all trials suggested a significant blood pressure reducing effect (mean systolic blood pressure change±SE: -5.60±5.26mm Hg, p=0.04) ... Our meta-analysis suggests that lycopene taken in doses ≥25mg daily is effective in reducing LDL cholesterol by about 10% which is comparable to the effect of low doses of statins in patient with slightly elevated cholesterol levels" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at iHerb.
• Red Yeast Rice Comparable to Pravastatin for Statin-Intolerant Patients - Medscape, 1/21/10 - "After 12 weeks of treatment, red yeast rice reduced LDL-cholesterol levels 30% from baseline, from 181 mg/dL to 126 mg/dL, while pravastatin reduced LDL-cholesterol levels 27%, a nonstatistical difference between treatments. Similarly, there were no significant differences observed in changes in total cholesterol, triglycerides, or HDL-cholesterol levels ... Regarding the primary end point, the incidence of treatment discontinuation because of myalgia, both red yeast rice and pravastatin were equivalent. In the red-yeast-rice arm, one patient of 21 (5%) withdrew because of muscle pain, while two patients of 22 (9%) withdrew in the pravastatin arm. Also, there were no reported differences in the mean pain severity scores with the two treatments" - See red yeast rice products at iHerb.

• Vitamin B niacin offers no extra benefit to statin therapy in seniors already diagnosed with coronary artery disease, study suggests - Science Daily, 11/18/09 - "This does not mean that niacin therapy may not have other cardiovascular benefits, but any such benefits are independent of reducing the amount of plaque buildup and patients should be aware of that ... Lima cautions that an ongoing national study of the long-term vascular benefits of dual therapy and whether extended-release niacin, also known as nicotinic acid, lowers death rates from heart disease should provide more definitive data" - Note:  The article implies that prescription Niaspan works better than immediate release niacin.  See http://www.lipidsonline.org/slides/slide01.cfm?q=effect+of+niacin&dpg=7 which implies the opposite.  The prescription might have less flush but I couldn't tell the difference.  Like I've said in the past, the flush gets less the longer you use it and is practically non-existent after you taken it for several months if you take it with food.  Also, the slow release may produce liver damages.  See:

  • A comparison of the efficacy and toxic effects of sustained- vs immediate-release niacin in hypercholesterolemic patients - JAMA. 1994 Mar 2;271(9):672-7 - "None of the patients taking IR niacin developed hepatotoxic effects, while 12 (52%) of the 23 patients taking SR niacin did"
• CoQ10 Improves Endothelial Dysfunction in Statin-Treated Type 2 Diabetics - Medscape, 5/29/09 - "Study subjects were randomized to receive either 200 mg/day of oral CoQ10 or placebo for 12 weeks ... Our absolute improvement in FMD of 1% with CoQ10 supplementation may potentially translate to a 10-25% reduction in residual cardiovascular risk in these patients" - See coenzyme Q10 products at iHerb.
• Taking Statins? Five Ways to Boost Your Energy - ABC News, 4/14/09 - "It's a cruel irony that if statins make patients more lethargic, it could impair their ability to exercise or make dietary changes that would help them address their high cholesterol ... some studies have found that patients' energy levels increased while using CoQ10 and statins together ... Try pomegranate juice or a small chunk of dark chocolate, both of which have beneficial antioxidants ... Skimping on sleep has been found to increase calcium deposit build-up in your arteries" - See Jarrow Ubiquinol at iHerb.
• Statins' Adverse Effects Documented - Science Daily, 1/29/09 - "Coenzyme Q10 ("Q10") is a compound central to the process of making energy within mitochondria and quenching free radicals. However, statins lower Q10 levels because they work by blocking the pathway involved in cholesterol production – the same pathway by which Q10 is produced. Statins also reduce the blood cholesterol that transports Q10 and other fat-soluble antioxidants ... "The loss of Q10 leads to loss of cell energy and increased free radicals which, in turn, can further damage mitochondrial DNA," said Golomb, who explained that loss of Q10 may lead to a greater likelihood of symptoms arising from statins in patients with existing mitochondrial damage – since these people especially rely on ample Q10 to help bypass this damage" - My favorite is QH-Absorb by Jarrow.
• Fish Oil, Red Yeast Rice Cut Cholesterol - WebMD, 7/23/08 - "We followed them for a three-month period ... The LDL declined 42% in the supplement group and 39% in the Zocor group ... The supplement group also lost an average of 10 pounds in 12 weeks, but there was no significant weight loss in the medication group. Triglyceride levels, while on average normal in both groups at the start, decreased by 29% in the supplement group but just 9.3% in the medication group -- a significant difference" - See red yeast rice products at iHerb and Mega Twin EPA at iHerb.
• Lowering Blood Cholesterol With Fish Oil And Red Yeast Rice Instead Of Statins - Science Daily, 7/8/08 - "The alternative treatment group participants received daily fish oil and red yeast rice supplements ... The statin group participants received 40 milligrams (mg) of Zocor (simvastatin) daily ... The researchers noted that there was a reduction in LDL cholesterol levels in both groups. The alternative treatment group experienced a 42.4 percent reduction, and the statin group experienced a 39.6 percent reduction. Members of the alternative therapy group also had a substantial reduction in triglycerides, another form of fat found in the blood, and lost more weight" - See red yeast rice products at iHerb and Mega Twin EPA at iHerb.
• Lycopene as effective as statins for artery health: rabbit study - Nutra USA, 7/3/08 - "The results of our experiment in the high-fat diet rabbit model showed that lycopene and fluvastatin lowered serum levels of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, improved lipid metabolism, and reduced the amount of triacylglycerols ... Lycopene intervention reduced the increase in ox-LDL levels in rabbits on the high-fat diet, whereas fluvastatin did not show such an effect. The cause of this difference is at present not known, although the result speaks in favour of lycopene ... These findings provide a theoretical rationale for the use of lycopene as a preventive in atherosclerosis" - [Abstract] - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at iHerb.
• Comparison of lycopene and fluvastatin effects on atherosclerosis induced by a high-fat diet in rabbits - Nutrition. 2008 Jun 26 - "Compared with the control, levels of total cholesterol, total triacylglycerol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, malonaldehyde, oxidized low-density lipoprotein, and interleukin-1 were increased and total antioxidant capacity and nitric oxide were decreased in the animals with a high-fat diet (P < 0.05). Intragastric administration of lycopene counteracted the change in these parameters (P < 0.05). In this case, the data showed that lycopene in the used dose was better than the fluvastatin intervention. Morphologic analysis revealed that lycopene and fluvastatin markedly reduced the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the aorta compared with the situation in rabbits on a high-fat diet alone ... Lycopene, like fluvastatin, significantly attenuated atherogenesis in rabbits fed a high-fat diet" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at iHerb.
• Effects of CoQ10 supplementation on plasma lipoprotein lipid, CoQ10 and liver and muscle enzyme levels in hypercholesterolemic patients treated with atorvastatin: A randomized double-blind study - Atherosclerosis. 2007 Aug 4 - "All patients showed definite reductions of plasma CoQ10 levels in the placebo group, by 42%. All patients supplemented with CoQ10 showed striking increases in plasma CoQ10 by 127%. In conclusion atorvastatin definitely decreased plasma CoQ10 levels and supplementation with CoQ10 increased their levels"
• Effect of coenzyme q10 on myopathic symptoms in patients treated with statins - Am J Cardiol. 2007 May 15;99(10):1409-12 - "coenzyme Q10 supplementation may decrease muscle pain associated with statin treatment. Thus, coenzyme Q10 supplementation may offer an alternative to stopping treatment with these vital drugs" - See coenzyme Q10 products at iHerb.
• Combining Agents Leads to Safe Treatment of Lipid Abnormalities - Physician's Weekly, 5/7/07 - "Combining the use of statins and niacin should be encouraged because it appears to safely treat multiple lipid abnormalities in appropriate high-risk patients"
• Niacin Extended-Release Tablets Combined With Low/Moderate Dosed Statin Achieves Better Total Lipid Control Versus Higher Dose Statin Monotherapy or Simvastatin and Ezetimibe - Doctor's Guide, 6/22/06 - "patients given Niaspan in combination with a low to moderate dose of Lipitor or Crestor achieved equivalent reduction in LDL-C (51-58%), 1.2 to 1.9-fold greater decreases in triglycerides and 2.5 to 3.5 fold greater increases in HDL-C, than patients who received high-dose Crestor or Zocor/Zetia" - See iHerb or Vitacost niacin products.  My favorite is Twinlab niacin 1000mg at iHerb.
• Coenzyme Q10 Lessens Muscle-Related Side Effects in Patients on Statins - Doctor's Guide, 3/7/05 - "Patients with significant myopathy who are taking statin therapy have a significant decrease in myopathic pain after 30 days of supplementation with coenzyme Q10" - See iHerb or Vitacost coenzyme Q10 products.
• Diet Can Lower Bad Cholesterol Like Statin Drug - WebMD, 2/8/05 - "Load up on fiber and vegetables: They lower cholesterol almost as much as cholesterol-lowering statin drugs ... Here's your shopping list: Cholesterol-lowering margarines containing plant fats such as "Benecol" or "Take Control", soy proteins and soluble fibers like oats, barley, psyllium, plus all kinds of vegetables, including eggplant and okra"
• Atorvastatin Decreases the Coenzyme Q10 Level in the Blood of Patients at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke - Arch Neurol. 2004;61:889-892 - "Even brief exposure to atorvastatin causes a marked decrease in blood CoQ10 concentration. Widespread inhibition of CoQ10 synthesis could explain the most commonly reported adverse effects of statins, especially exercise intolerance, myalgia, and myoglobinuria" - See iHerb or Vitacost coenzyme Q10 products.
• Are Statins the New Wonder Drugs? - Dr. Weil, 6/21/04 - "For moderately elevated cholesterol, I recommend non-prescription red rice yeast, a natural source of statins with fewer side effects" - See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• Policosonal: Nature's Cholesterol Balancer - Vitamin Research News, 2/04 - "Statin drugs are also known to cause male impotence" - See iHerb or Vitacost policosanol products.
• Diet Can Be as Effective as Statin Therapy in Lowering Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/03
• Low-Cholesterol Diet as Good as Drugs - WebMD, 7/22/03 - "a vegetarian diet combining four types of cholesterol-lowering foods works as well as cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins ... It had four basic components: plant sterols in the form of a cholesterol-lowering margarine; soy proteins; sticky or soluble fibers such as fruits, vegetables, oats, and legumes; and almonds"
• Policosanol more Effective than Lovastatin for Intermittent Claudication - New Hope Natural Media, 5/29/03 - "Those taking policosanol had a 34% increase in pain-free walking distance, while no change was observed in those taking lovastatin. Quality of life was also reported as being significantly better in the policosanol group compared with the lovastatin group. Both treatment groups had significant reductions in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. However, participants taking policosanol had a significant 32% increase in HDL cholesterol and a 6% decrease in fibrinogen, while these parameters remained unchanged in those receiving lovastatin" - See iHerb or Vitacost policosanol products.  Claudication gets my attention because my father has it and if there is a hereditary factor, I want to prevent it. - Ben
• Ispaghula Husk [psyllium] Nearly As Effective As Simvastatin For Hyperlipidemia - Doctor's Guide, 12/24/02 - "One group received 3.5 grams of ispaghula husk twice a day and the second group received 20 milligrams of simvastatin each day ... total cholesterol decreased by 15.8 percent and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol decreased by 22.97 percent among patients taking ispaghula husk ... Triglycerides decreased by 20.89 percent and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol increased by 10.69 percent in these patients ... Among patients taking simvastatin, total cholesterol decreased by 24.15 percent, LDL cholesterol decreased by 36.08 percent, triglycerides decreased by 20.47 percent and HDL cholesterol increased by 11.4 percent" - I've got that. See Drugstore.com psyllium products.  3.5 grams is about one wafer (3.4 grams psyllium/wafer).  Plus 24 wafers runs about $4.49 versus about $116 for 30 of the 20 mg simvastatin.
• Chinese Cholesterol Control? - Dr. Weil, 10/1/02 - "And it contains seven different statins, not just lovastatin. In my experience, the natural mixture of compounds is less toxic (to the liver and muscles) than isolated lovastatin ... Other brands of red rice yeast extract are still available in the U.S., although they haven’t been clinically proven as was Cholestin, and may not be as effective"
• Fish Oil May Augment Atorvastatin As Treatment For Dyslipidemia In Obese, Insulin-Resistant Men - Doctor's Guide, 8/7/02 - "fish oils significantly decreased plasma levels of triglycerides and very low density lipoprotein-apoB, decreased the very low density lipoprotein-apoB secretion rate ... combined treatment with atorvastatin and fish oils decreased very low density lipoprotein-apoB secretion and increased the fractional catabolic rate of apoB in each lipoprotein fraction , as well as the percent conversion of very low density lipoprotein to low density lipoprotein" - See TwinLab Mega Twin EPA at iHerb or Vitacost.
• Dr. Julian M. Whitaker Petitions FDA to Include CoQ10 Use Recommendation in All Statin Drug Labeling - Life Extension Magazine, 8/02 - "On May 23, 2002, Dr. Julian M. Whitaker filed two citizens petitions with the Food and Drug Administration. The petitions call on the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to change the labeling of all HMG CoA reductase inhibitor drugs (the so-called statin drugs), and to issue a Medication Guide, warning consumers of the need to take coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) whenever they take a statin drug"
• Vitamins Help After Heart Transplant - WebMD, 3/28/02 - "The plaque-fighting benefits of the antioxidant supplements were even greater than those found using statin medications, which have already been shown to slow hardening of the arteries after transplants. Previous research has shown that antioxidants, such as vitamin C and E, can promote heart health by reducing blood clots and keeping the blood vessels flexible"
• Antioxidant Supplements Lessen Response To Cholesterol Drugs - Doctor's Guide, 8/10/01
• An Antioxidant Cocktail May Prove to Be Heart Unhealthy - WebMD, 8/9/01
• Vitamin E And Other Antioxidants May Blunt Benefits Of Cholesterol Drugs - Intelihealth, 11/28/01
• A Prescription for Alarm - Nutrition Science News, 9/01

CME:

• Concensus on Statins - Prous Science, 12/00

General Information:

• Treatments for heart disease - Medifocus.com

Other News:

• Statin Use and Risk of Diabetes Mellitus in Postmenopausal Women in the Women's Health Initiative - Arch Intern Med. 2012 Jan 9 - "The WHI recruited 161 808 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years at 40 clinical centers across the United States from 1993 to 1998 with ongoing follow-up ... Statin use at baseline was associated with an increased risk of DM (hazard ratio [HR], 1.71; 95% CI, 1.61-1.83). This association remained after adjusting for other potential confounders (multivariate-adjusted HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.38-1.59) and was observed for all types of statin medications"
• Statins linked to higher diabetes risk  - USATODAY.com, 1/9/12 - "Study authors advise patients not to stop taking their medications without talking to a doctor, because statins' proven power to prevent heart attacks and strokes outweighs any potential increase in type 2 diabetes risk. But the results — a nearly 50% increase in diabetes among longtime statin users — should throw cold water on the idea of prescribing these drugs to healthy people, which some have recommended as a way to prevent disease ... In the study, 6.4% of women who didn't use statins developed diabetes during the eight to nine years of follow-up ... That rate rose to 9.9% among statin users"
• Statin Prescriptions and Breast Cancer Recurrence Risk - Medscape, 12/22/11 - "It is possible that some past incidence studies did not observe an association because a high proportion of statin users took hydrophilic drugs. For instance, Cauley et al.[16] observed a lower risk of breast cancer among lipophilic statin users, 82% of whom took either simvastatin or lovastatin (HR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.70 to 0.97); and Boudreau et al.[17] observed an inverse association with overall statin use, when approximately 48% of the study participants were simvastatin or lovastatin users (odds ratio = 0.7, 95% CI = 0.4 to 1.0).[17] However, Woditschka et al.[14] observed no association between statin use and breast cancer incidence in which most users were exposed to the lipophilic drugs simvastatin and lovastatin (odds ratio = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.97 to 1.08);[52] and Friis et al.[12] studied statin use and breast cancer incidence in a Danish population that overlaps with the population analyzed in our study (so simvastatin is expected to have accounted for a large proportion of the overall statin exposure) and also observed no association; (relative risk = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.76 to 1.36).[12] Although the apparent discordance between the statin associations with breast cancer incidence and recurrence may be explained by inadequate exposure characterization with respect to solubility, it is also important to realize that factors which prevent recurrence are not necessarily expected to also prevent incidence"
• Study: Statins reduce flu death risk by half - USA Today, 12/14/11 - "Patients on statins were 41 percent less likely to die, the study found, even after adjusting for age, the presence of heart, lung and/or kidney disease, whether or not they had had a flu shot, or whether or not they had received antiviral medications such as Tamiflu ... There's no question that these observations are striking in terms of death from influenza but they can't say why"
• Benefit of early statin therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction who have extremely low low-density lipoprotein cholesterol - J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Oct 11;58(16):1664-71 - "Intensive lipid-lowering therapy with a target LDL-C value <70 mg/dl is recommended in patients with very high cardiovascular risk. However, whether to use statin therapy in patients with baseline LDL-C levels below 70 mg/dl is controversial ... Statin therapy significantly reduced the risk of the composite primary endpoint (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.34 to 0.89; p = 0.015). Statin therapy reduced the risk of cardiac death (HR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.93; p = 0.031) and coronary revascularization (HR: 0.45, 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.85; p = 0.013). However, there were no differences in the risk of the composite of all-cause death, recurrent MI, and repeated percutaneous coronary intervention rate"
• More Evidence for Lowering LDL to Below 70 - Medscape, 10/4/11 - "They compared outcomes among 1054 patients with LDL levels below 70 mg/dL at the time of their MI as to whether they were discharged on a statin or not ... Results showed that the rate of major adverse cardiac events at one year was significantly lower in those patients who were taking a statin, with the benefit mainly driven by the reduction of cardiac death and coronary revascularization ... Dr Roger Blumenthal (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD) suggested the study supported the pleiotropic effects of statins and the idea that the ideal LDL-C is probably closer to 50 than to 70 mg/dL ... levels of LDL below 70 are on a par with those of nonhuman primates who don't develop atherosclerosis, adding that, like these primates, humans were designed to be vegetarians ... Chimpanzees don't eat meat; they eat very little fat. They have LDL levels in the range of 40 to 70, and they don't get atherosclerosis. Maybe we wouldn't get atherosclerosis either if we had levels this low"
• Cancer mortality according to lipid-lowering drugs and lipoproteins in a general population - Curr Med Res Opin. 2011 Sep 7 - "The beneficial effect of lipid-lowering drugs (LLD) on cardiovascular risk is established, but long term safety data remain scarce. Our aim was to assess 10-year risk of cancer mortality according to blood lipoprotein levels and LLD exposure, in a general population ... There were 3262 participants and 177 deaths were recorded over the 10-year period (78 due to a cancer). The sample comprised 64% of normolipidaemic, 25% of untreated dyslipidaemic and 11% of dyslipidaemic subjects treated with LLD (4% statins, 6% fibrates and 1% other hypolipidaemic drugs). After adjustment for centre, age, gender, smoking, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and mean corpuscular volume, the hazard ratios (HR) for cancer mortality in subjects with non-HDL cholesterol <3.5 mmol/L (135 mg/dL) and in those with HDL cholesterol <0.90 mmol/L (35 mg/dL) were 2.74 (95% confidence interval: 1.66-4.52, p < 0.001) and 2.83 (1.62-4.96, p < 0.001), respectively. The adjusted HR for cancer mortality was 0.31 (0.11-0.86, p = 0.025) in people on LLD compared to untreated subjects. Conclusions: In the present study, we confirm the significant association between low cholesterol and cancer mortality without finding any harmful signal regarding cancer risk associated with the use of LLD"
• Dietary Intake of Cholesterol Is Positively and Use of Cholesterol-Lowering Medication Is Negatively Associated with Prevalent Age-Related Hearing Loss - J Nutr. 2011 May 25 - "After multivariable adjustment, the likelihood of prevalent hearing loss increased from the lowest (reference) to the highest quartile of dietary cholesterol intake (P-trend = 0.04). Among persons self-reporting statin use (n = 274), a 48% reduced odds of prevalent hearing loss was observed after multivariable adjustment [OR = 0.52 (95% CI = 0.29-0.93)]. Participants in the second and 3rd quartiles of dietary monounsaturated fat intake compared with those in the first quartile (reference) had a significantly reduced risk of hearing loss progression 5 y later [multivariable-adjusted OR = 0.39 (95% CI = 0.21-0.71)] and [OR = 0.51 (95% CI = 0.29-0.91)], respectively. Our results suggest that a diet high in cholesterol could have adverse influences on hearing, whereas treatment with statins and consumption of monounsaturated fats may have a beneficial influence"
• Statins and Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Grade in a Veterans Population - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2011 Apr 15 - "Compared with men taking an antihypertensive medication, statin users were 31% less likely (HR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.52 to 0.90) to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Furthermore, statin users were 14% less likely (HR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.62 to 1.20) to be diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancer and 60% less likely (HR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.24 to 0.65) to be diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer compared with antihypertensive medication users. Increased levels of total cholesterol were also associated with both total (HR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.00 to 1.05) and high-grade (HR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.02 to 1.10) prostate cancer incidence but not with low-grade prostate cancer incidence (HR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.98 to 1.04)"
• Statins make radiation more effective at curing prostate cancer, study suggests - Science Daily, 3/23/11 - "the men taking statins were less like to relapse than other patients. At five years, 11 percent of men taking statins saw their cancer return compared to 17 percent of patients not taking the medication. At eight years, 17 percent of men on statins had a relapse compared to 26 percent not taking the drug"
• Statins may prevent diabetic-related blindness, study suggests - Science Daily, 2/17/11 - "oral treatment with the drug atorvastatin blocked the formation of free radicals in the retina, which restored proper levels of nerve growth factor and preserved neurons in the retina. "It removed the break on the pro-form nerve growth factor to develop into its mature form," she said. The drug was orally administered to rats in doses proportional to levels given to human patients with cardiovascular problems ... In a related study, also in the March edition of the journal Diabetologia, El-Remessy and her colleagues found that epicathecin, a component of green tea, also prevented the adverse actions of proNGF in the retina. It does not affect the maturation of proNGF into NGF, explained El-Remessy, but regulated a receptor downstream that proNGF uses to send a signal to kill the neuron. Epicathechin prevents the death by inhibiting that receptor. "We are still getting the same result, that we are preventing neuronal death and restoring neuronal function, but just in a different way,"" - See Jarrow Green Tea extract at iHerb.
• Statins Lower Cardiovascular Risk Regardless of Baseline LDL : Abstract and Introduction - Medscape, 1/21/11 - "In the placebo-controlled trials, statin recipients had a 41-mg/dL greater decline in LDL-C and a significant 22% reduction in first major vascular events (2.8% vs. 3.6% annually). In the high-dose versus low-dose trials, high-dose patients had a 20-mg/dL greater decline in LDL-C and a significant 15% reduction in first major vascular events (4.5% vs. 5.3% annually). Relative risk reductions of about 20% per 40-mg/dL decline in LDL-C were seen in both placebo-controlled and high- versus low-dose trials for all prespecified patient subgroups, and at all baseline LDL-C levels (including <80 mg/dL)"
• Statin risks may outweigh benefits for patients with a history of brain hemorrhage - Science Daily, 1/10/11
• Statin use associated with statistically significant reduction in colorectal cancer - Science Daily, 10/18/10 - "The relative risk was 0.88 (95% CI 0.84-0.93; n=22) and represents a 12% reduction in the odds of colorectal cancer among statin users ... the most common category of statins, lipophilic (which includes atorvastatin or Lipitor®), showed the greatest effect ... long-term use of statins is associated with reduced risk of several cancers, including breast, prostate, lung, pancreas and liver"
• Regular statin use is associated with a reduced risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis - Science Daily, 9/7/10 - "After adjusting for other possible confounders, patients who persistently took statins had a lower risk (risk ratio of 0.58) of developing rheumatoid arthritis compared with patients who did not persistently take statins. There was only a small short term decrease in risk ratio in patients taking statins and the development of osteoarthritis. (hazard ratio of 0.85)"
• Statins associated with lower cancer recurrence following prostatectomy - Science Daily, 6/28/10 - "the data showed that overall, statin use reduced the risk of biochemical recurrence by 30 percent ... Among men taking statins equivalent to 20 mg of simvastatin a day, the risk of recurrence was reduced 43 percent and among the men taking the equivalent of more than 20 mg of simvastatin a day, the risk of recurrence was reduced 50 percent. Men who took a statin dose the equivalent of less than 20 mg of simvastatin daily saw no benefit"
• Statins May Lower Testosterone, Libido - WebMD, 4/16/10 - "When they compared men on statins to those not, the men on statins were twice as likely to have low testosterone, regardless of which of three commonly used thresholds for low testosterone they looked at"
• Statins May Be Linked to Diabetes Risk - WebMD, 2/17/10 - "use of statins increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 9%. This risk was found primarily among older people; there was no additional diabetes risk among statin users 60 and under"
• Common cholesterol drugs, statins, fight cataracts, too - Science Daily, 2/9/10
• Statins and Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women without Hormone Therapy - Anticancer Res. 2009 Dec;29(12):5143-5148 - "Overall, there was no association between the use of statins and breast cancer risk odds ratio (OR)=1.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.7-2.5). However, risk varied by hormone receptor status. Compared to non-users, obese women who used hydrophobic statins had an elevated risk of progesterone receptor-negative (PR(-)) breast cancer OR=4.0 (95% CI 1.2-13.8), but not of tumors with other hormone receptor profiles. The risk for breast cancer was also significantly increased among overweight women who used hydrophobic statins for less than or equal to 4 years OR=4.1 (95% CI 1.2-14.4). CONCLUSION: This observational study found an increased risk of breast cancer related to duration of statins use and PR(-) among postmenopausal women"
• Statins May Soon Be Given to Those With Excess Inflammation - U.S. News, 12/17/09 - "The Food and Drug Administration is considering expanding the use of cholesterol-lowering statin Crestor to those who have increased levels of inflammation—but not high cholesterol ... 2.8 percent of folks in the Crestor group developed diabetes compared with 2.3 percent of those who took placebos ... Experts still can't explain why Crestor would increase the likelihood of diabetes, but other research suggests that the entire class of statin drugs appears to have this downside ... found a 13 percent increased risk in diabetes in the statin users ... 1.5 percent of the placebo takers had a heart attack or stroke compared with 0.72 percent of the statin takers"
• Statins Lower Mortality, but Not Health Services Use - Medscape, 12/10/09 - "After adjustment for clinical and demographic variables, receipt of statins was associated with a 59% reduction in mortality"
• Long-term Statin Use Associated With Decreased Risk Of Gallstones Requiring Surgery - Science Daily, 11/10/09 - "Use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins for more than a year is associated with a reduced risk of having gallstones requiring surgery"
• Widely Used Cholesterol-lowering Drug May Prevent Progression Of Parkinson's Disease - Science Daily, 11/9/09 - "Simvastatin, a commonly used, cholesterol-lowering drug, may prevent Parkinson's disease from progressing further"
• Cholesterol-lowering Medicines May Be Effective Against Cancer - Science Daily, 11/2/09 - "Our results support the idea that statins can be used in more ways than just to lower cholesterol," says Pilon. "Not least that they can prevent the growth of cancer cells caused by lipid-modified proteins, but also that they can be effective in the treatment of diabetes and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's."
• Statins Show Dramatic Drug And Cell Dependent Effects In The Brain - Science Daily, 10/28/09 - "Besides their tremendous value in treating high cholesterol and lowering the risk of heart disease, statins have also been reported to potentially lower the risks of other diseases, such as dementia ... statin drugs can have profoundly different effects on brain cells -both beneficial and detrimental ... simvastatin reduced the expression of the cholesterol transporter ABCA1 by approximately 80% in astrocytes, while pravastatin lowered expression by only around 50%. Another interesting difference was that while both statins decreased expression of the Tau protein -associated with Alzheimer's disease -- in astrocytes, they increased Tau expression in neurons; pravastatin also increased the expression of another Alzheimer's hallmark, amyloid precursor protein (APP)"
• Statin Drugs May Cut Dementia Risk - WebMD, 7/14/09 - "people who took statin drugs were 58% less likely to develop dementia than those who did not ... So what is going on? A risk factor for dementia is high insulin; one theory is that statins may lower the high insulin levels in the brain. Statins have also been shown to reduce levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation that has been linked to the pathology that can lead to dementia"
• Muscle Damage From Statins May Evade Blood Test - WebMD, 7/6/09 - "Studies suggest that between 10% and 15% of patients who take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Crestor, Lipitor, Lescol, Mevacor, Zocor, and Pravachol experience muscle pain as a side effect of treatment ... Most do not end up with muscle damage, and a simple blood test is routinely performed to identify patients who do ... But the new study suggests the test for elevated levels of an enzyme associated with muscle injury, known as creatine phosphokinase or CPK, may be less accurate than widely believed ... Our findings call into question whether normal or mildly elevated levels of serum (CPK) can be used to exclude underlying and possibly ongoing muscle injury"
• Muscle Damage May Be Present In Some Patients Taking Statins - Science Daily, 7/6/09 - "Although in clinical practice, the majority of patients with muscle symptoms improve rapidly after cessation of therapy, our findings support that a subgroup of patients appears to be more susceptible to statin-associated myotoxicity, suffering persistent structural injury"
• Cholesterol OK? Statins Still Help Heart - WebMD, 7/1/09 - "Combined data from 10 trials that included more than 70,000 patients without cardiovascular disease, but with cardiovascular risk factors, showed a 12% reduction in deaths among patients who took statins ... The statin group also had 30% fewer heart attacks and 20% fewer strokes over four years of follow-up"
• Statins Can Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease, According To New Study - Science Daily, 6/22/09 - "They clearly demonstrated that treatment with a statin called Lovastatin could prevent the death of nerve cells under these conditions. The statins not only prevented cells from dying but also prevented the loss of memory capacity that normally occurs after such cell death. In a previous study Dolga had showed that these statins stimulate the protective capacity of tumor necrosis factor, which is a key player in the brain’s immune response" - [Abstract] - Note:  Lovastatin is in red yeast rice.  See red yeast rice products at iHerb.
• Pretreatment with Lovastatin Prevents N-Methyl-D-Aspartate-Induced Neurodegeneration in the Magnocellular Nucleus Basalis and Behavioral Dysfunction - J Alzheimers Dis. 2009 Mar 6 - "From these studies we conclude that treatment with lovastatin may provide protection against neuronal injury in excitotoxic conditions associated with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease" - Note:  Lovastatin (that's the generic name and therefore shouldn't be capitalized) is in red yeast rice.  See red yeast rice products at iHerb.
• Statin Drugs May Protect Against Cancer And Also Result in Fewer Gallbladder Removals - Science Daily, 5/5/09 - "The research team found a significant inverse association between having statin prescriptions filled and the risk of developing HCC. There was a trend toward stronger risk reduction with longer and more frequent statin prescriptions"
• Statins Alter Prostate Cancer Patients' PSA Levels - Science Daily, 4/28/09 - "We found that PSA levels are actually significantly lower in prostate cancer patients on statins versus prostate cancer patients not on statins"
• Major Statin Study Reveals Several Important Findings For Reducing Prostate Cancer And Disease - Science Daily, 4/26/09 - "non-statin users were three times more likely to develop prostate cancer, suggesting statin use may prevent development of prostate cancer ... Overall, statin use was not significantly associated with a decreased risk of developing ED. However, statins were associated with a decreased risk of ED among older men (>60 years). Men in this age category who used statins were less likely to develop ED, compared to older men who did not use statins. Additionally, men who took statins for a longer time were more protected against developing ED. For example, men who took statins for nearly nine years or more were 64 percent less likely to develop ED, while men who took statins for less than three years had about the same risk of developing ED. compared to men who did not take statins" - See atorvastatin at OffshoreRX.com.
• Statins May Exert Influence On Prostate Cancer Growth By Reducing Inflammation - Science Daily, 4/26/09 - "men who were on statins had a 72 percent reduction in risk for tumor inflammation, and we believe this might play a role in the connection between prostate cancer and statin use" - See atorvastatin at OffshoreRX.com.
• Statins May Lower Stroke Risk - Science Daily, 4/15/09 - "strokes were 18% less likely among patients taking statins than among those who didn't get statins ... For every drop of 39 mg/dL in LDL "bad" cholesterol, stroke risk dropped by 21%"
• Statin study: Lower cholesterol, diminished joy of sex linked - USA Today, 3/5/09 - "In the study, sexual pleasure sank along with LDL levels ... Some studies have found that statins improve sexual function, probably because the pills can improve blood flow to the genital area, Golomb says. But she says the drugs also may reduce Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that helps cells convert oxygen, blood and glucose into energy. "Orgasm is a high-energy activity," so losing the nutrient could weaken sexual pleasure, she says" - See Jarrow Ubiquinol at iHerb.
• Aching Back? Cholesterol Medication Might Help - Science Daily, 3/3/09 - "A new study finds that using statins may be useful in treatment for degenerative discA new study finds that using statins may be useful in treatment for degenerative disc ... Lovastatin increased the synthesis of collagen II, a protein that makes up moveable joints, and decreased the synthesis of collagen I, a protein that is related to fibrosis (the formation or development of excess fibrous connective tissue)" - Note:  Lovastatin is the one that red yeast rice is high in.
• Statins Lower Stroke Severity, Improve Recovery - Science Daily, 2/27/09 - "patients who were taking statins before a stroke experienced better outcomes and recovery than patients who weren't on the drug — even when their cholesterol levels were ideal"
• Statins Cut Deaths From Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 2/26/09 - "men taking statins were 63% less likely to die from the disease than men not taking statins ... The high-potency statins were about 2.5 times more effective at preventing prostate cancer death than the weak statins"
• 'Normal' levels of bad cholesterol may be too high - USA Today, 2/1/09 - "Current guidelines recommend that doctors prescribe a statin for anyone whose LDL is 100 milligrams per deciliter of blood or higher ... half of all heart attacks are occurring below 100 (mg/dl) ... the study supports the wisdom of a push to drive LDL even lower, in many cases down to 70 mg/dl"
• More May Benefit From Cholesterol Drugs - WebMD, 1/13/09 - "Eight out of 10 middle-aged and older Americans may benefit from treatment with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs ... All the participants had elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) ... Over an average of two years of treatment, participants who took the statin Crestor had half as many heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from cardiovascular causes as participants randomly assigned to receive a placebo"
• Eye Disorders Linked To Statin Drug Use In Some Patients - Science Daily, 12/2/08
• JUPITER hits New Orleans: Landmark study shows statins benefit healthy individuals with high CRP levels - theheart.org, 11/9/08 - "In a study of individuals with low LDL cholesterol but elevated C-reactive-protein (CRP) levels, investigators showed that rosuvastatin (Crestor, AstraZeneca) 20 mg significantly reduced the primary end point—a composite of nonfatal MI, nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina, revascularization, and confirmed death from cardiovascular causes—by 44% compared with individuals treated with placebo" - Note:  They seem to be attributing this to the reduction in CRP.  At 12 months, the CRP  of the 20 mg Crestor group was 2.2.  The baseline was 4.2.  That's a (4.2 - 2.2)/4.2 = 47.6% reduction in CRP.  Another option to reduce CRP might be Periostat (low dose doxycycline for periodontal disease).  See my CRP page for other ways to reduce it.  See:
  • Low-dose Periostat (Doxycycline) Shows Benefits in Patients with Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 11/20/02 - "At six-month follow-up, sub-antimicrobial dose doxycyline significantly reduced CRP levels by 45.8 percent compared to baseline values (p<0.05). The drug was also associated with a 33.5 percent reduction in interleukin-6 and a 50 percent reduction in metalloproteinase ... The findings are exciting, since research is now showing that CRP is both a key marker of inflammation leading to future acute coronary events, but also that CRP itself may contribute to the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis"
• Study: Statins help people with normal cholesterol, too - USATODAY.com, 11/9/08 - "A study involving nearly 18,000 patients has shown for the first time that giving a cholesterol-lowering statin drug to seemingly healthy people with normal cholesterol can cut their risk of heart attacks, stroke and death by nearly half"
• Statins Lower Prostate Cancer Marker - WebMD, 10/28/08 - "On average, PSA declined by 4.1% after starting a statin ... a bigger decrease was seen in men who started out with the highest PSA levels (2.5 ng/mL or more) -- but only among those who had the greatest decrease in cholesterol. These men had a 17.4% drop in PSA"
• Statins Reduce Dementia & Cognitive Impairment Risk - Physician's Weekly Article, 10/13/08 - "Patients who had used statins were about half as likely as those who did not use the drugs to develop dementia or CIND"
• Statins May Prevent Miscarriages, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 10/10/08
• Top-selling Cholesterol Drug Does Little For Women, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 9/17/08 - "Not one of the studies that included women with a mixture of risk factors for heart attacks provided statistically significant support for prescribing Lipitor or other statins to protect against cardiovascular problems. Pfizer’s claims of clinical proof that Lipitor reduces risk of heart attack in patients with multiple risk factors for heart disease does not appear to be scientifically supported for large segments of the female population ... Lipitor’s advertising repeatedly fails to report that clinical trials were statistically significant for men but not for women. Unqualified advertising claims of protection against heart attacks may therefore be misleading"
• Statins Lower Risk of Recurrent Stroke in Both Elderly, Younger Patients - Doctor's Guide, 9/10/08 - "Within each group, about half of the people received atorvastatin and about half received a placebo. The participants were then followed for an average of 4.5 years ... Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol was lowered by an average of 61 points during the study for the elderly group, and by 59 points for the younger group. Those in the younger group reduced their risk for another stroke by 26% and the elderly group reduced their risk by 10%"
• Cholesterol Drugs Lower Risk Of Stroke For Elderly, Too - Science Daily, 9/4/08
• Lowering Cholesterol Early In Life Could Save Lives - Science Daily, 8/4/08 - "Our review of the literature convinces us that more aggressive and earlier intervention will probably prevent considerably more than 30% of coronary heart disease ... Studies show that fatty streak lesions in the arteries that are a precursor to atherosclerosis and heart disease begin in childhood, and advanced lesions are not uncommon by age 30. Why not nip things in the bud?" Such early signs of heart disease should be taken as seriously as early signs of cancer or diabetes"
• Statins May Prevent Dementia in Older Adults - Doctor's Guide, 7/29/08 - "People at high risk for dementia who took statins were half as likely to develop dementia as those who do not take statins"
• Can Statins Reduce Risk of Memory Loss? - WebMD, 7/28/08
• Statins Have Unexpected Effect On Pool Of Powerful Brain Cells - Science Daily, 7/3/08
• Statins Are "Remarkably Safe," Says New Review - Medscape, 6/10/08 - "A new review of the safety of statins has concluded that these drugs are well tolerated, with their main adverse effects — myopathy and rhabdomyolysis — occurring very rarely at standard doses"
• Low Cholesterol Leads To Lower PSA, Lower Prostate Cancer Risk, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 5/15/08 - "PSA levels were reduced after starting statin medications and that this decline was proportional to the decline in LDL cholesterol"
• Statins May Reduce Risk for Lung Cancer - Medscape, 5/8/08 - "Statin use for more than 6 months was associated with a reduced risk for lung cancer of 55%"
• Reduction in Blood Pressure With Statins: Results From the UCSD Statin Study, a Randomized Trial - Arch Intern Med. 2008 Apr 14;168(7):721-7 - "Statins modestly but significantly reduced BP relative to placebo,by 2.2 mm Hg for SBP (P = .02) and 2.4mm Hg for DBP"
• Statins Cause Apoptosis of Esophageal Cancer Cells - Medscape, 4/21/08
• Statins Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/11/08 - "We found that statins lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and that the effect extends to patients with pre-hypertension, with normal blood pressure, and persons not on blood-pressure lowering medications"
• Statins May Reduce Risk of Kidney Cancer - Medscape, 2/26/08 - "Treatment with a statin was associated with a 48% reduced risk of renal cell carcinoma"
• Statins, NSAIDs vs. Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 2/18/08 - "Men with prostate cancer who take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs or anti-inflammatory drugs live longer than those who don't take the drugs ... men who reported ever taking statins were 41% to 65% less likely to die during the course of the study than men who didn't. Men who took NSAIDs were 53% to 61% less likely to die than those who didn't"
• Why Patients Stop Taking Statins and What Can Be Done About It - Medscape, 2/14/08 - "Another reason why patients might stop taking lipid-lowering therapy may be sleep disturbance, which has been associated with statins" - That's something I didn't know.  If you are taking statins, you might want to take them in the morning instead of the evening.
• Statins might reduce risk of renal cell carcinoma in humans: case-control study of 500,000 veterans - Urology. 2008 Jan;71(1):118-22 - "Statin use was significantly associated with a risk reduction of renal cell carcinoma of 48% (adjusted odds ratio 0.52"
• Great Drug, but Does It Prolong Life? - New York Times, 1/28/08 - "High-risk groups have a lot to gain ... But patients at low risk benefit very little if at all. We end up overtreating a lot of patients ... This month, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published a report combining data from several studies of people 65 and older who had a prior heart attack or established heart disease. This “meta-analysis” showed that 18.7 percent of the placebo users died during the studies, compared with 15.6 percent of the statin users ... This translates into a 22 percent lower mortality risk for high-risk patients over 65"
• The Association Between Statins and Cancer Incidence in a Veterans Population - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Jan 8 - "After multivariable adjustment, a statistically significantly decreased risk of all cancers was also associated with increasing statin use"
• Statins for All Adults with Diabetes? - WebMD, 1/10/08 - "One-third fewer people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes would suffer heart attacks or strokes if they took cholesterol-lowering statin drugs"
• Statin Drugs May Cut Cancer Risk - WebMD, 1/8/08 - "The veterans were followed for five years, on average. During that time, 9% of those taking statins were diagnosed with cancer, compared with 13% of those not taking statins, VA records show"
• Elderly CHD Patients and Statins - Medscape, 1/3/08 - "the use of statins for secondary prevention in elderly patients with documented CHD reduced all-cause mortality 22% and reduced CHD mortality 30%. Nonfatal myocardial infarction was reduced 26%, the need for revascularization 30%, and stroke 25%"
• Statin Use Tied to Fewer Relapses in Prostate Cancer - oncologystat.com, 11/26/07 - "Men who happened to be on statins when given radiotherapy for prostate cancer were significantly more likely to be disease free 10 years later"
• CORONA: Little Clinical Benefit Seen in First Major Statin Trial in HF - Medscape, 11/6/07 - "Over a median follow-up of 33 months, there were no significant differences in the primary end point or in all-cause mortality, the rate of coronary events (which included sudden death, fatal or nonfatal MI, percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI] or coronary arterial bypass graft [CABG], resuscitated cardiac arrest, and hospitalization for unstable angina), effects on NYHA class, or the rate of newly diagnosed diabetes ... Despite the lack of difference in the primary end point, there were significant reductions in levels of CRP; however, they were not decreased to what would be considered a low level ... This does bring into question whether higher doses of rosuvastatin could have additional clinical benefit" - Note:  Statins do little to increase HDL which some studies imply may be more important.  Also, statins have been shown to decrease co-enzyme Q10.  I would have liked to see the results if they had added niacin to increase HDL and co-enzyme Q10.
• Statins May Fight Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 10/29/07 - "Overall, 76% of men who took statins were alive and without cancer 10 years after treatment vs. 66% of those who didn’t"
• Can Cholesterol-lowering Medicine Make Radiation More Effective At Curing Prostate Cancer? - Science Daily, 10/29/07 - "Patients with prostate cancer who receive high-dose radiation treatment and also take statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol have a 10 percent higher chance of being cured of their cancer at 10 years after diagnosis (76 percent), compared to those who don't take these medications (66 percent)"
• Statin Use Linked to Better Blood Pressure Control - Medscape, 10/23/07 - "After adjustment for demographics, body mass index, diabetes, smoking, exercise, low-salt diet, and antihypertensive medications, the odds ratio for having blood pressure under control was 1.46 for statin users compared with nonusers"
• Statins Cut Gallstones Risk - WebMD, 10/16/07 - "The study suggested that overall, current statin use slashed the risk of having gallbladder removal surgery by 18% -- no matter how long a woman had been taking the drug ... Women with diabetes who had been taking statins for two or more years reduced their risk of surgery by 75% ... Statins improve insulin resistance in people with diabetes but not in nondiabetics"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Reduce Dementia & Parkinson's Risk - Physician's Weekly Article, 10/15/07 - "there appears to be a strong reduction in dementia and Parkinson’s disease incidence attributed to the use of simvastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug. The researchers also observed a moderate reduction in incidence of these conditions with atorvastatin, another cholesterol-lowering drug"
• Can Statins Benefit Patients With Low LDL-Cholesterol Levels? - Physician's Weekly, 10/15/07 - "Investigators reviewed more than 6,000 patients with LDL levels of less than 60 mg/dL. After receiving a statin medication, patients with low LDL levels had better survival rates than those who did not receive the agent"
• Statins Reduce Loss Of Function, Keeping Old Lungs Young -- Even In Smokers - Science Daily, 10/12/07 - "subjects taking statins experienced a markedly slower annual decline in lung function. In FEV1, statin users lost 10.9 ml on average, whereas nonusers lost an average of 23.9 ml each year--more than twice that of the statin group. Similarly, statin users lost an average of 14 ml a year in FVC, whereas nonusers lost an average of 36.2 ml ... the observed effect may be attributable to statins' ability to reduce inflammation and smoking-induced injury in the lung, as well as their capacity to reduce serum levels of C-reactive protein, which relates to systemic inflammation, and to protect against oxidative damage"
• Statin Drugs: Heart Benefits Last Long - WebMD, 10/10/07 - "Men who got inactive placebo pills during the study had a 15.5% chance of heart attack or heart death 10 years after the study ended. Those who got five years of statin treatment had only an 11.8% chance of heart attack or heart death. They also had a lower risk of heart disease"
• Low-Dose Aspirin Plus Statins Protects Against Colorectal Cancer - Medscape, 10/4/07 - "Dr. Brenner's group observed a modest risk reduction of colorectal cancer among regular users of low-dose aspirin (adjusted odds ratio = 0.77). A stronger association was found with regular use of statins (OR 0.65). The strongest risk reduction was seen in subjects who used combination low-dose aspirin and statins (OR 0.63), especially if both drugs were used for at least 5 years (OR 0.38)"
• Statins May Help Alzheimer's Patients - washingtonpost.com, 9/11/07 - "Those patients who had taken statins before they died showed significantly lower levels of tangles in their brains ... Our data says these drugs appear to be doing something in the human brain ... Whether this will translate into behavioral changes, we can't say ... subjects had taken statins for only five years or less. It may be that longer use of statins would offer more protection"
• Use of Statins and Blood Pressure - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Sep;20(9):937-941 - "Compared with people not using statin medication, significantly more statin users had their blood pressure under control (52.2% v 38.0%). After adjustment for demographic factors, statin users were two times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46 to 2.72) more likely to have their blood pressure under control (<140/90 mm Hg) than nonusers. After further adjustment for body mass index, diabetes, smoking, exercise, low-salt diet, and antihypertensive medications, the likelihood of having blood pressure under control remained more likely among statin users (odds ratio, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.05)"
• Statins May Cut Alzheimer's Disease - WebMD, 8/27/07 - "participants who had taken statins were 80% less likely to have brain changes typical of Alzheimer's disease than those who hadn't taken statins"
• Statins May Cut Colon Cancer Recurrence - Medscape, 7/26/07 - "Just 6 of 89 patients (6.7%) treated with any statin relapsed, as opposed to 43 of 269 (16%) patients with no statin use"
• Older Patients Reap Positive Benefits With High Dose Statins, Study Finds - Science Daily, 7/3/07 - "The study participants had a relative reduction in risk of 19 percent for a major cardiovascular event with high-dose compared with low-dose atorvastatin. The important feature is that this occurred without any evidence of increase in risk from the high dose"
• Common Drugs Cut Diabetes Nerve Damage - WebMD, 6/22/07 - "protection was 35% for statins and 48% for fibrates -- statistically the same protection -- and these effects were independent of blood sugar control, height, age, other things associated with neuropathy"
• Statins May Cut Prostate Cancer Deaths - WebMD, 5/21/07 - "the greater the men's cholesterol decrease, the more their PSA levels dropped"
• Treating the metabolic syndrome - Expert Rev Cardiovasc Ther. 2007 May;5(3):491-506 - "appropriate treatment of MS components often requires pharmacologic intervention with insulin-sensitizing agents, such as metformin and thiazolidinediones, while statins and fibrates, or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers are the first-line lipid-modifying or antihypertensive drugs"
• Statin Use Linked With Decreased Prostate Cancer Mortality Rates; Lower PSA Levels - Science Daily, 5/20/07 - "PSA levels declined by 1.1 percent for every 10 mg/dl decrease in LDL ... Reviewing PSA levels among statin users screened in the Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening Trial, researchers from Helsinki found a decrease in prostate cancer incidence in this group ... A significant decrease was found in the incidence of T3 cancers ... Non-statin, lipid-lowering drugs were not associated with incidence, stage or grade"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Fight Lung Cancer - WebMD, 5/7/07 - "People who take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs for more than six months -- even smokers -- cut their lung cancer risk by 55% ... Taking the drugs for four or more years cut lung cancer risk by 77%"
• Statin Drugs May Reduce Risk Of Heart Failure, Sudden Cardiac Death, New Study Suggests - Science Daily, 5/1/07
• Effects of Statin Use on Muscle Strength, Cognition, and Depression - Medscape, 4/30/07 - "Statin nonusers tended to perform worse on each outcome measure"
• Statins Take on Advanced Prostate Cancer - Physician's Weekly, 4/2/07 - "The use of statin drugs “was not associated with risk of prostate cancer overall but was associated with a reduced risk of advanced (especially metastatic or fatal) prostate cancer.” ... The relative risk was 0.60 for less than five years of statin use and for 0.26 for five or more years of use"
• Statins Protect Against Prostate Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 3/27/07 - "Overall, prostate cancer incidence was significantly lower for statin users than non-users (4.0% vs 8.0%, respectively). A significant dose-response relationship was seen for the total cumulative quantity of statin users and incidence of prostate cancer"
• Cholesterol Busting Statins Also Reduce Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 3/8/07 - "the use of statins did produce a drop in blood pressure. The overall effect of the use of statins was a 1.9 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure and 0.9 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure. The effect was even more pronounced in patients with high blood pressure (systolic over 130 mmHg) who showed an average drop of 4.0 mmHg if treated with statins"
• Should Everyone Be on a Statin? - Medscape, 3/6/07 - "Patients without contraindications should be considered for treatment with statins if their risk for cardiovascular events exceeds 20% over a 10-year period.[3] Patients with a 10-year risk for cardiovascular events under 10% probably will not benefit from statin treatment. The art of medicine applies to the large group of patients who fall between a 10% and 20% risk for events over 10 years. The current study suggests that a significant reduction in morbidity may be achieved in these patients, but if a reduction in mortality associated with statin therapy in this population exists, many patients will require statin therapy over significant time periods to achieve a benefit"
• Statin Therapy Cuts Bad Cholesterol Unprecedented 70% - Doctor's Guide, 2/27/07 - "40 mg of rosuvastatin and 10 mg ezetimibe ... Crestor and Zetia reduced mean LDL-C by an unprecedented 70%"
• Biological Aging Predicts Heart Attack - WebMD, 1/11/07 - "People who age fast -- as measured by DNA shortening -- have a higher heart disease risk. Statin drugs may help ... Pravachol -- one of the "statin" family of cholesterol-lowering drugs -- dramatically lowered the heart disease risk of people with shorter telomeres. But the drug seemed to have little effect on heart disease risk in people with the longest telomeres"
• Do statins have a beneficial effect on the kidney? - Medscape, 1/4/07 - "Statins appear to have a small beneficial effect on the rate of kidney function decline (particularly in patients with cardiovascular disease), and proteinuria"
• Statins vs. Advanced Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 12/19/06 - "Overall, statin use didn't appear to sway the men's chances of being diagnosed with prostate cancer ... Men taking statin drugs were about half as likely to have advanced prostate cancer as those not taking statins"
• Statin Drugs May Help the Healthy - WebMD, 11/27/06 - "people without heart disease or stroke who took statins had a nearly 30% lower risk of coronary heart event, including heart attack, and 14% lower risk of stroke compared with those who didn't"
• More People Could Benefit From Statins - WebMD, 11/9/06 - "They found treatment with a generic statin to be cost-effective, even for people as young as 35 or as old as 85, whose annual risk of having a major heart or stroke event was as little as 1% ... generic statins could save patients in the U.S. as much as $1,800 per year"
• Statin Use Slows Lung Function Decline In Smokers And Former Smokers - Science Daily, 10/24/06
• Study: Statins Increase Life Expectancy - Intelihealth, 10/10/06 - "We were surprised to find that statin users actually lived an average two years longer despite the patients having more health risk factors and being older than non-statin users"
• Low-dose statin therapy reduces risk of CHD in Japanese subjects by 33% - Medscape, 9/28/06 - "the addition of pravastatin 10 mg to a low-fat diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids reduces the risk of CHD in Japanese individuals with moderately elevated cholesterol levels by 33%, approximately the same reduction observed in US and European primary-prevention trials that have used larger statin dose"
• Cholesterol Drugs Fight Hepatitis C - WebMD, 7/7/06
• Cholesterol Drugs May Avert Cataracts - WebMD, 6/20/06 - "Those who took Zocor had a 72% lower risk of nuclear cataracts. Those who took Lipitor had a 27% lower risk. Those who took Pravachol, Lescol, and Mevacor had a combined 33% lower risk"
• Statin Use Associated With Marked Decrease in Kidney Cancer Among US Veterans - Doctor's Guide, 5/25/06 - "statins are associated with a 44% risk reduction of kidney cancer"
• Statin Therapy Benefits Hypertensive and Non-Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/06 - "Overall, pooled results showed that statin therapy reduced cardiac deaths by 24%"
• Cholesterol-lowering Drugs Not Associated With Increased Breast Cancer Risk - Science Daily, 5/18/06
• Statins May Improve Circulation In The Retina - Science Daily, 5/9/06 - "Among patients taking statins, intraocular pressure was reduced 90 minutes after taking the medication and at the seven-day mark. Blood velocity (speed) and blood flow were significantly increased in patients who had taken statins for seven days"
• Erectile Dysfunction and Statin Treatment - Medscape, 3/21/06 - "Simvastatin was found to cause impotency in five men with coronary artery disease, and within 1 week of discontinuing simvastatin, sexual function was restored. The Australian Adverse Drug Reactions Committee reported 42 cases of ED associated with simvastatin.[13] In contrast, in one study in men aged 49.7 years and isolated hypercholesterolaemia [low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-C 4.3 mmol/l] as a risk factor which used penile Doppler ultrasound in a per protocol analysis of 50% of the cohort of 18 patients (n = 9), atorvastatin therapy was associated with improvement in erectile function"
• Statin Withdrawal Hard on the Heart - WebMD, 3/14/06 - "people who discontinued taking the drugs experienced rapid rises in both C-reactive protein (CRP) and LDL cholesterol levels"
• Use Of Statins Shows Improvement In Erectile Performance Of Some Men Who Previously Did Not Respond Well To Viagra - Science Daily, 2/23/06 - "There did seem to be some improvement for those who received Lipitor versus the placebo ... We theorized that if you could make the edothelium healthier through the use of statins -- so that there is more nitric oxide available -- you would improve the endothelial dysfunction and Viagra would work better for the patient"
• Statins: Do They Lower Risk of Infections? - ABC News, 1/25/06
• Statins do not protect against cancer - MSNBC, 1/4/06
• Cholesterol Drugs May Slow Alzheimer's - WebMD, 11/17/05 - "Those taking cholesterol drugs had the smallest drop in test scores ... No one was assigned to take any drug. The researchers just tracked the patients' medications and test scores"
• Statin Drug Good Bet After Heart Attack - WebMD, 11/15/05
• UCLA Scientists Use Statins To Overcome Learning Disabilities In Mice - Science Daily, 11/11/05 - "UCLA scientists used statins, a popular class of cholesterol drugs, to reverse the attention deficits linked to the leading genetic cause of learning disabilities"
• Statins Reduce Risk of Stroke and Death after Carotid Artery Surgery - Doctor's Guide, 11/10/05
• Statins Use Associated with Lower Risk of Fractures - Doctor's Guide, 10/6/05
• 40-Point Cholesterol Drop=20% Lower Heart Risk - WebMD, 9/27/05 - "for every 40-point drop in "bad" LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol sustained over a five-year period, the use of statins reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other heart-related complications by nearly 20%"
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Also Good for Bones - WebMD, 9/26/05
• Statin Treatment Within First 24 Hours After Heart Attack Cut Mortality By Half - Doctor's Guide, 8/29/05 - "early treatment with a statin drug within 24 hours of having a heart attack reduced in-hospital mortality rates by over 50%"
• Statins Don't Cut Dementia Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 8/05 - "Initial analyses of the investigators' data suggested that statin use lowered the risk of dementia. But that link disappeared in further analyses that adjusted for covariates, particularly subject age and sex"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Help After Bleeding Stroke - WebMD, 7/28/05
• Statin Therapy May Lower Mortality in Heart Failure Patients - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/05 - "during the study period, heart failure patients on statin therapy had a risk of death that was 22% lower than the patients receiving the other drugs"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Harm Ill Diabetics - Intelihealth, 7/21/05
• Statins May Not Fight Dementia - WebMD, 7/11/05
• Statins Not Associated with Reduced Dementia Risk - Doctor's Guide, 7/11/05 - "Participants were on average 75 years of age, and statin use was assessed for a median of 5 years. Statin exposure may need to occur earlier in adulthood or for longer periods to prevent dementia"
• MRI Scan Reveals How Cholesterol Drugs Work - WebMD, 7/5/05 - "20 milligrams or 80 milligrams of Zocor daily ... After a year and a half of treatment, MRI scans showed that both groups ended up with similar reductions in plaque size, regardless of the strength of their statin dose ... Reduction in the size of blood vessel wall plaque was greater in people whose LDL cholesterol dropped below 100 mg/dl"
• Large Study Shows Link Between Statin Use and Risk of Lymphoma: Presented at ICML - Doctor's Guide, 6/9/05 - "Use of statins is associated with a decrease in the risk of developing any type of lymphoma"
• The Role of Statins in Preventing Stroke - Medscape, 6/7/05 - "statins reduce stroke through cumulative improvements in a number of different components of atherosclerosis including effects on the endothelium, thrombosis, plaque stability, and through anti-inflammatory effects"
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Still Underused - WebMD, 5/31/05 - "Only half of the people at moderate or high risk for heart disease are getting the recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs that can reduce their risk of a heart attack or death"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Prevent Colon Cancer - WebMD, 5/25/05 [Abstract] - "people who took cholesterol-lowering statin drugs for five years cut their colon cancer risk in half"
• Amlodipine and Atorvastatin Combination May Help Relax Arteries - Doctor's Guide, 5/20/05 - "the calcium channel blocker amlodipine (Norvasc) and the cholesterol-lowering agent atorvastatin (Lipitor) both reduce arterial stiffness in the small arteries ... Stiff arteries are old arteries ... Relaxing the arteries is beneficial for cardiovascular health"
• Statin Use Linked to 51% Reduction in Breast Cancer - Medscape, 5/20/05 - "The beneficial effect is seen in more than four years of statin use ... In both the prostate and lung cancer studies, there was a 48% to 54% risk reduction in cancer associated with statin use"
• Statin Use Associated with Lower Risk of Pancreatic and Esophageal Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/05 - "The odds ratio was 0.44 (95% confidence interval 0.36 – 0.53) for esophageal cancer and 0.41 (95% confidence interval 0.31 – 0.51) for pancreatic cancer. This translates into a reduction in cancer risk of 56% and 59%, respectively"
• Statin Drugs Linked to Reduced Cancer Risk - WebMD, 5/16/05 - "During a six-year period, women who used statins reduced their risk of breast cancer by more than half (51%) compared with nonusers ... Statin users were 48% less likely to develop lung cancer than nonusers ... statin use reduces the rate of prostate cancer by 54%"
• Next Alzheimer's Disease Drug: Lipitor? - WebMD, 5/9/05 - "How could Lipitor help Alzheimer's patients? Excess cholesterol in the brain seems to play a role in Alzheimer's disease progression"
• Combination Therapy The Next Wave For Diabetic Dyslipidemia - Doctor's Guide, 5/2/05 - "Ezetimibe and prolonged-release nicotinic acid show the most promise so far when combined with a statin ... extended-release form of nicotinic acid (Niaspan) ... taking 1000 mg or 1500 mg per day experienced increases in serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels of 19% and 24%"
• Statins Urged for Diabetic Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/2/05 - "diabetics who are older than 40 years of age whose total cholesterol exceeds 3.5 mmol/L (135 mg/dL) should be placed on statin therapy to achieve a 30% to 40% reduction in LDL level, regardless of their baseline LDL level and even if they do not have overt cardiovascular disease"
• Men Who Take Statins Slash Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 4/20/05
• Statins Lower Prostate Cancer Risk - WebMD, 4/18/05 - "Compared with men who didn't take cholesterol-lowering drugs, those who did take them had nearly one-half the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer. Risk decreased with increasing duration of use"
• Cholesterol Drugs Help Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 4/12/05 - "Unless there are medical reasons not to take the drugs, all patients who suffer a stroke should be put on statins ... people started on statin drugs within a week of a stroke were one-and-a-half to more than twice as likely to recover and go home within 45 days as those who were not given the drugs"
• High Cholesterol May Speed Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 3/17/05 - "Our data support the notion that cholesterol-lowering drugs -- which are widely used and fairly safe -- might be effective in prevention of prostate cancer, or as an adjunctive therapy ... elevated cholesterol levels did not stimulate new prostate cancers but promoted tumor growth"
• Study: Cholesterol drugs fight heart disease - MSNBC, 3/8/05 - "Taking very high doses of a drug to push cholesterol to very low levels can help people with heart disease avoid strokes and heart attacks, but also can cause liver problems that limit the ability to tolerate such intensive treatment"
• Statin Therapy Lessens Complications in Angioplasty Patients - Doctor's Guide, 3/8/05
• Grapefruit Juice and Medication Can Be a Deadly Mix - Doctor's Guide, 1/18/05 - "reported on a man from a northern climate who moved to Florida for the winter ... and began drinking two to three glasses of grapefruit juice each day. Two months later the man died, the victim of a deadly interaction between grapefruit juice and his cholesterol-lowering medication"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Lower Alzheimer's Risk - WebMD, 1/10/05 - "long-term use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs may help reduce risk of memory-robbing deposits and Alzheimer's disease"
• If Bush Needs a Cholesterol Drug, Do You? - WebMD, 12/14/04 - "his total cholesterol level was listed as 170 mg/dL, which is considered within the normal range ... people with normal total cholesterol but low HDL "good" cholesterol levels (below 40) had a 37% reduction in heart attack risk over five years by taking a statin"
• Risk Of Muscle-damaging Disorder Low For Most Commonly Prescribed Statin Drugs - Science Daily, 12/8/04
• FDA Expert Examines Cholesterol Drug Safety - WebMD, 11/22/04
• Cholesterol-lowering Drug May Slow Alzheimer's Progression - Science Daily, 11/17/04 - "The cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin slowed down mental decline and improved depressive symptoms in people with Alzheimer’s disease"
• Statins May Lower Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 11/20/04 - "simvastatin was associated with a 2.79-mm Hg decrease in systolic blood pressure and a 2.67-mm Hg drop in diastolic blood pressure, while pravastatin led to a 2.47-mm Hg decline in systolic blood pressure and a 2.47-drop in diastolic blood pressure"
• Cholesterol Medication: Are High Doses Better? - WebMD, 11/1/04 - "The high-dose cholesterol medication group appeared to fare better. Their risk of heart disease events - including death, heart attack, and severe chest pain -- was reduced by 17% compared with people receiving usual-care treatment"
• Experts: Fewer Take Statins Than Should - Intelihealth, 10/18/04 - "About 13 million Americans take statins -- roughly one-third of the number for whom they're recommended ... Clinton's case shows the need for educating more doctors to treat cholesterol more aggressively ... The president's doctors didn't even know how to manage lipids"
• No Negative Effects on Bone Health Seen in Women Taking Statins - Doctor's Guide, 10/5/04
• Statin Use Protects Heart Failure Patients Against Mortality Regardless of Cholesterol Levels - Doctor's Guide, 9/16/04 - "As possible mechanisms for this benefit, it has been suggested that statins help improve endothelial function, including increasing endothelial nitric oxide expression, they appear to improve autonomic nervous system function and reduce cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling"
• Statins:  The Emerging Indications - Physician's Weekly, 9/13/04
• Study Supports Aggressive Treatment of Heart Patients with Cholesterol-Lowering Medication - Doctor's Guide, 8/30/04
• Statins, But Not Cholesterol, Appears to Impact Morbidity in Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 8/30/04 - "Statin use is associated with improved outcomes"
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Work for Years - WebMD, 8/26/04 - "Overall, there was a 24% reduction in heart attack deaths and a 17% reduction in deaths from other cardiovascular causes among patients taking the cholesterol-lowering drug for 10 years compared with five years"
• Chest Pain? Statins May Save Heart - WebMD, 8/23/04
• HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors prevent bone loss in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus - Diabet Med. 2004 Sep;21(9):1020-4 - "there was a significantly smaller annual decrease of the radial BMD in the HMG-CoA group"
• Statin use in Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with a delay in starting insulin - Diabet Med. 2004 Sep;21(9):962-7 - "The use of statins is associated with a delay in starting insulin treatment in patients with Type 2 diabetes initially treated with oral antidiabetic agents"
• Statin Drugs May Protect Children's Hearts - WebMD, 7/20/04
• Statins May Provide Anti-Inflammatory Benefit in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis - Doctor's Guide, 7/5/04 - "Primary outcome measures were change in disease activity score (DAS28) ... the DAS28 improved significantly in the group receiving atorvastatin compared with placebo ... In addition, C-reactive protein declined by 50%"
• Statin Therapy: An Expert Interview With Eliot A. Brinton, MD - Medscape, 6/24/04
• Long-Term Use of Statins May Protect Against Glaucoma - Doctor's Guide, 6/22/04
• Atorvastatin Reduces Blood CoQ10 Levels - Medscape, 6/22/04 - "Even brief exposure to atorvastatin causes a marked decrease in blood CoQ10 concentration ... Widespread inhibition of CoQ10 synthesis could explain the most commonly reported adverse effects of statins, especially exercise intolerance, myalgia, and myoglobinuria" - See iHerb or Vitacost coenzyme Q10 products.
• Cholesterol Drug May Help Rheumatoid Arthritis - WebMD, 6/17/04 - "After six months, the patients who took Lipitor did a bit better than the others. They had lower scores on a medical index of rheumatoid arthritis activity ... In addition, the Lipitor group had lower levels of two markers of inflammation -- sed rate and C-reactive protein"
• Cholesterol Drugs May Fight Glaucoma - WebMD, 6/14/04 - "men who had used statins for two or more years were 40% less likely to develop glaucoma than the others ... Use of other, non-statin cholesterol-lowering drugs was also associated with a 41% lower incidence of glaucoma ... use of statins can also lower the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness among people over 65"
• New Study Links Common Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs To Reduced Prostate Cancer Risk - Science Daily, 6/8/04 - "men who have taken any amount of these drugs, known as statins, have a 58 percent lower risk of prostate cancer than men who have taken none at all"
• Statin Drugs May Cut Colon Cancer Risk - WebMD, 6/7/04 - "When they added in those factors, "use of statins was still associated with a 46% reduction in risk.""
• Statins Effective for Treating Acute Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/04
• Cholesterol Drugs May Slow MS - WebMD, 5/13/04
• Cholesterol Drugs: Cancer Fighters? - WebMD, 4/26/04 - "taking statins appeared to decrease the risk of breast cancer by 30% in postmenopausal women"
• Statin Prescriptions Consistently Low in Elderly Patients at Cardiovascular Risk - Doctor's Guide, 4/21/04 - "Our observed low prescription rate of statin therapy adds to a growing body of literature demonstrating that statin therapy is substantially underused"
• Nearly All With Type 2 Diabetes Need Statins - WebMD, 4/19/04 - "no matter how low the cholesterol count, nearly all people with diabetes should take these cholesterol-lowering drugs"
• Statins Fight Vision Loss - WebMD, 4/15/04
• Statins and Aspirin May Protect Against Severe Vision Loss in Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 4/13/04 - "those patients already taking statins were half as likely as those without statins to develop the more severe wet AMD, caused by the growth of new blood vessels underneath the retina"
• Inverse Relationship Observed Between Statin Treatment and Risk of Hip Fracture - Doctor's Guide, 3/12/04 - "The risk of hip fracture decreased as the number of statin prescriptions increased ... 0.72 ... for subjects who redeemed more than 3 statin prescriptions"
• Statin Dosing Rarely Meets Recommended Therapeutic Goals - Doctor's Guide, 3/9/04 - "in clinical practice statins are routinely underdosed, thus significant numbers of patients never receive the protective benefits of these agents"
• High-Dose Statin Therapy Superior to Lower Dose Treatment, Reduces Mortality - Doctor's Guide, 3/9/04
• Intensive Statin Therapy Resulted in Higher Risk Reduction of Major Cardiac Events or Death Than Standard Statin Therapy in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes - Doctor's Guide, 3/9/04
• Aggressive Lipid-Lowering Decreases All-Cause Mortality - Medscape, 3/8/04 - "Patients were randomized to 40 mg pravastatin (standard therapy) or 80 mg atorvastatin (intensive therapy) ... All-cause mortality was reduced by 28% in the aggressive-treatment arm ... At the time of randomization, the median LDL cholesterol level in each group was 106 mg/dL"
• Preoperative Statin Therapy Benefits Patients Undergoing Vascular Surgery - Doctor's Guide, 3/8/04 - "preoperative treatment with statins appears to be associated with a shorter hospital stay, improved long-term survival, and trends towards fewer myocardial infarctions (MIs) and combined cardiovascular end points"
• Intensive versus moderate lipid lowering with statins after acute coronary syndromes - NEJM, 3/8/04
• 'Statin' Cholesterol Drugs Lower Stroke Risk - WebMD, 3/4/04 - "Statin therapy should now be considered routinely for all patients at high risk of stroke, irrespective of their initial cholesterol concentrations or the presence of heart disease"
• Effect of Intensive Compared With Moderate Lipid-Lowering Therapy on Progression of Coronary Atherosclerosis - JAMA, 3/3/04
• Intensive Statin Therapy Stops Plaque Buildup - WebMD, 3/2/04 - "compared the effects of intensive statin therapy using 80 mg daily of Lipitor vs. a more moderate approach using 40 mg of Pravachol ... the most significant finding was that plaque buildup within the arteries stalled among the patients on high-dose statin therapy and there was no progression of atherosclerosis in this group"
• Statins May Help Heart Failure Patients Too - WebMD, 2/18/04
• Statins May Protect against Cognitive Impairment after Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/04
• Statins May Improve Neurologic Outcomes After Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Statins and ACE Inhibitors can Save Lives and Limbs for Leg-Bypass Patients - Doctor's Guide, 1/27/04
• Statins May Help Prevent Bone Fractures - WebMD, 1/26/04 - "statin users had a 38%-81% lower risk of hip bone fractures and a 5%-51% lower risk of nonspinal fractures ... statin use was associated with a 57% reduction in the number of hip fractures reported and a 31% reduction in nonspinal fractures"
• Statins: A New Therapy for Depression? - Physician's Weekly, 12/8/03 - "adult patients with underlying coronary artery disease (CAD) who continuously used statins were 30% to 40% less likely to be at risk for depression, anxiety, and hostility"
• Reason for concern? - Wellness Insider, 11/25/03 - "Dr. Golomb feels the potential side effects of statins, which include liver dysfunction, muscle pain (rhabdomyolysis), and potentially, muscle breakdown, have been significantly downplayed. She also feels that statins, especially at higher doses, contribute to memory loss and to the depletion of coenzyme Q10, a naturally occurring antioxidant-like nutrient vital to the production of energy"
• Severe Hepatotoxicity Rare in Patients With Elevated Liver Enzymes on Statin Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 10/31/03
• Rosuvastatin Improves Plasma Lipid Ratios - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/03 - "Rosuvastatin significantly more effective than atorvastatin, simvastatin, and pravastatin in improving the ratios of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol" - See Crestor (rosuvastatin) at drugstore.com.
• Rosuvastatin 10-40 mg Safe and Well Tolerated Compared to Other Statins - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/03 - "Minor adverse events associated with the use of rosuvastatin included myalgia in 2.1%, asthenia in 1.2%, nausea in 1.4%, dyspepsia in 0.6%, headache in 1.1%, insomnia in 0.8%, abdominal pain in 1.2%, diarrhoea in 1.1%, constipation in 1.1%, and flatulence in 0.9%"
• Rosuvastatin Improves Apolipoprotein Levels - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/03
• Combined Fluvastatin-Fibrate Therapy Improves Lipid Profile of Hypercholesterolaemic Patients - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/03
• Statins Used to Treat High Cholesterol and Osteoporosis - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/03 - "simvastatin acts as a double therapeutic weapon by blocking the conversion of HMG-CoA to mevalonate. Not only does this action increase new bone formation via the stimulation of osteoblasts, but it also prevents the production of cholesterol" - See Zocor (simvastatin) at drugstore.com.
• Fluvastatin Reduces Myocardial Ischemia in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/03
• Statins Decrease Aortic Stiffness in Hypertensives With High Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/03 - "Most significantly, while the PWV remained unchanged in the pravastatin and non-statin group, it was moderately decreased in the simvastatin group and remarkably reduced in the fluvastatin group ... Dr. Ichihara theorized that lipophilic statins, such as fluvastatin, reduce aortic stiffness via three mechanisms -- decreasing serum total cholesterol levels without reducing serum high-density lipoprotein levels, providing powerful scavenging reactive oxygen species, as well as reducing serum levels of low-density lipoprotein and C-reactive protein" - See Zocor (simvastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin) and Lescol (fluvastatin) at drugstore.com.
• Statins may play a role in the treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases - Doctor's Guide, 9/28/03 - "the administration of simvastatin for 8 days was associated with a rapid and significant reduction in proteinuria levels in the three patients with SLE, as well as in the 2 patients with systemic vasculitis. In the five patients with RA, atorvastatin for 8 days was associated with a reduction in C-reactive protein levels and clinical improvement ... statins may have an important therapeutic potential for different inflammatory diseases" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin but check with your doctor.  See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• Crestor (Rosuvastatin Calcium) Available in US For Treatment of Elevated Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 9/16/03 - "Crestor is available in 5 to 40 mg doses in pharmacies nationwide ... In clinical trials, Crestor lowered LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol or "bad" cholesterol by 45 to 63 percent (7 percent for placebo) and increased HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol or "good" cholesterol by 8 to 14 percent (3 percent for placebo)" - See Crestor (rosuvastatin) at drugstore.com.
• Heart Protection Study Implications for Lipid Management Guidelines and Practices - Doctor's Guide, 9/16/03 - "While Heart Protection Study (HPS) findings support aggressive lowering of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and suggest optimal levels well below current recommendations, failure to achieve current goals for LDL cholesterol is common ... HPS findings demonstrated that a reduction of major vascular events extended even to CAD patients with initial LDL cholesterol levels <100 mg/dL using simvastatin 40 mg, suggesting that the optimal LDL cholesterol level is below target levels established in current guidelines ...  rosuvastatin is more effective than other statins in reducing LDL cholesterol" - See Zocor (simvastatin) or Crestor (rosuvastatin) at drugstore.com.
• Cholesterol Drug May Ease Intermittent Claudication - WebMD, 9/2/03 - "Lipitor has the added benefit of improving walking ability in people with intermittent claudication, a condition caused by blocked leg arteries that leads to cramping and fatigue in the legs and buttocks during exercise, such as walking"
• Only Half of Patients Receiving Statins Achieve Maximum Benefit - Medscape, 9/2/03 - "less than  than half of patients started on a statin are treated to goal, and thus the promise of statins for cardiovascular disease prevention may be largely unrealized ... the problem seems to be caused by poor physician follow-up ... Compliance is another problem" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerbor Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• Statin, Atorvastatin, Increases Pain-Free Walking Distance In Patients With Intermittent Claudication - Doctor's Guide, 9/2/03
• Statins Do Not Decrease Risk Of Clinical Fracture Or Bone Mineral Density In Postmenopausal Women - Doctor's Guide, 8/19/03
• Cholesterol-Lowering Statin, Crestor (Rosuvastatin Calcium), Receives FDA Approval - Doctor's Guide, 8/13/03
• Statins Benefit Diabetics, Regardless of Cholesterol Levels - Medscape, 8/13/03 - "These results show that simvastatin therapy leads to significant risk reductions for vascular events in type 2 diabetic patients, even if they don't have diagnosed coronary disease or high cholesterol levels. The authors estimate that 5 years of treatment would prevent about 45 major vascular events per 1000 patients and suggest that statins should be offered to high-risk diabetic patients regardless of their cholesterol levels"
• Heart Protection Study Supports Use of Statins In Elderly, Women, and Those With Low LDL - Doctor's Guide, 8/1/03 - "statin treatment significantly decreased the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (primary endpoint) and "any major vascular event," including non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, and need for revascularisation procedures ... In older adults compared to younger adults, the HPS trial found similar statin benefits, with about a 25% reduction in major vascular events regardless of age"
• Statins Help Ease Heart Failure - WebMD, 7/28/03 - "People with heart failure may benefit from treatment with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs even if their cholesterol levels are normal ... One group took 5 mg of the statin Zocor for four weeks followed by 10 mg for 10 weeks ... standard dose of Zocor in the U.S. to treat high cholesterol is 40 mg ... researchers found significant improvements among the patients taking the statin. Their average level of functional heart impairment dropped from 2.39 to 2.04 on a scale of 1 to 4 ... left ventricular ejection fraction, a measure of heart function, rose from 34% to 41%" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• FDA Advisory Committee Unanimously Recommends Approval of Lipid Lowering Drug, Crestor (Rosuvastatin Calcium) - Doctor's Guide, 7/10/03
• Statins Significantly Reduce LDL levels, Ischaemic Heart Disease and Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 7/7/03
• FDA Approves Pravigard PAC (Buffered Aspirin and Pravastatin Sodium) Tablets For Those At Risk Of Heart Disease, Heart Attack, Or Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 6/25/03
• Atorvastastin is Safe and Well Tolerated in Dyslipidaemic Patients - Doctor's Guide, 6/16/03
• Statins Cut Diabetes Heart Risk - WebMD, 6/12/03
• Fluvastatin Improves Hyperlipidaemia in Nephrotic Syndrome - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/03
• Physicians Not Aggressive Enough In The Prescribing and Monitoring of Lipid-Lowering Agents - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/03 - "Clearly physicians need to be more aggressive in putting patients with high cholesterol on lipid-lowering agents, and there needs to be more vigilance by physicians in monitoring compliance and effectiveness ... A great portion of these patients were never adequately monitored with lab tests, so [physicians] can't possibly know if the therapy is…effective if they don't order lipid-monitoring tests"
• Study Compares Extended-Release Lovastatin and Atorvastatin - Doctor's Guide, 6/10/03
• "Eye-Popping" Low-Density Lipoprotein Results from Statin Use Reported - Doctor's Guide, 6/9/03 - "The percent of patients achieving LDL goal was highest with atorvastatin and lowest with lovastatin" - Yeah, but what about HDL, which some feel is just as important if not more important.
• Statin Drugs Linked to Lower Prostate and Renal Cancer Risk - Doctor's Guide, 6/4/03
• Cholesterol Drugs May Prevent Cancer - WebMD, 6/2/03 - "Overall, taking statins reduces risk of developing cancer by 20%, but that protection increases to 36% for people who take statins for four years or more ... But the benefit stops about six months after the patient stops taking the drug" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• Simvastatin May Retard Progression of Severe White Matter Changes - Doctor's Guide, 5/26/03 - "Simvastatin may slow down the progression of severe white matter changes in the brain, and may therefore retard cognitive decline ... The most common type of vascular dementia is due to the hardening of the arteries deep inside the brain which causes white matter changes... and its been shown that this can lead to executive dysfunction" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• Previous Treatment with Statins Improves Outcome in Non-Lacunar Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03 - "Taking statins for any reason seemed to improve the outcome of NLIS as a whole, but especially in patients who had suffered atherothrombotic infarction"
• Simvastatin Therapy Slows Coronary Disease Progression in Patients With and Without Cardiovascular Risk Factors - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03 - "simvastatin/enalapril therapy versus placebo resulted in decreases in mean coronary artery diameters ... and minimum diameters ... study results support the contention that the therapeutic effect of statin lipid lowering drugs on angiographically seen coronary atherosclerosis is linked to the reduction of coronary events without regard to the presence of known cardiovascular risk factors" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.
• Statins Better than Antioxidants in Lowering Cholesterol in High Risk Conditions - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03
• Ezetimibe-Statin Combination Lowers Cholesterol Safely and Effectively in the Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/03
• Statin Use Tied to Lower Risk for Choroidal Neovascularization with Macular Degeneration - Doctor's Guide, 5/7/03
• Simvastatin Enhances Bone Formation And Augments Bone Mineral Density - Doctor's Guide, 4/24/03 - "After a year's treatment with simvastatin the increases in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine, femoral neck and femur were 2.8, 1.0 and 0.8% respectively. In contrast, lumbar spine, femoral neck and femur bone mineral density declined by 1.6, 1.4, and 1.2% in the control group"
• Niacin Extended-Release/ Lovastatin Combination Effective in Patients with Multiple Lipid Disorders - Doctor's Guide, 4/23/03 - "Treatment by niacin ER/lovastatin was found to be more effective than each of its components, showing improved levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides (TG)" - Note:  Niacin usually increases HDL (the good cholesterol) much more than statins.  From my own experience and from taking to others, it seems like many physician's may ignore low HDL.
• Alzheimer's Disease: Statins May Be a New Treatment - WebMD, 4/21/03
• Drug Combo Improves Cholesterol Levels - WebMD, 4/11/03
• Cholesterol Drugs: Breast Cancer Treatment? - WebMD, 4/10/03 - "One reason cancer cells grow so fast is that they lack biochemical brakes that slow cell growth ... Mevacor -- and, likely, other statins -- lets these growth-brakes build up inside cancer cells -- making them a potentially useful breast cancer treatment down the road"
• Rosuvastatin Improves Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factors - Doctor's Guide, 4/9/03
• Taking Statins After Acute Ischemic Stroke Improves Outcome - Doctor's Guide, 4/8/03
• Niacin Extended-Release Lovastatin Effective In Lowering Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 4/7/03
• Ezetimibe Plus Simvastatin Reduces C-Reactive Protein in Patients with High Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/03 - "C-reactive protein is considered an emerging risk factor and risk marker for coronary heart disease ... the levels of C-reactive protein were about halved when the pooled ezetimibe plus simvastatin results were compared with simvastatin alone. The combination produced about a 34.8% reduction compared to an 18.2% reduction if the statin was used as monotherapy"
• Atorvastatin Addition to High Blood Pressure Treatment Reduces Heart Events - Doctor's Guide, 4/3/03
• Statin Appears Promising for MS - Medscape, 4/2/03
• Statins Have Dramatic Effect On Hypertensives With Normal Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 4/2/03
• Zocor for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment - WebMD, 4/2/03
• Statins Have Heart Benefits in Patients With Normal Cholesterol Levels - WebMD, 4/2/03
• Statins Appear To Have Favourable Impact On Psychological Conditions - Doctor's Guide, 4/2/03 - "the longer people are on the statins the more their symptoms of depression, anxiety and hostility decrease ... When people stop taking statins or can not tolerate the medicine, their depression, anxiety and hostility returns to pre-statin levels"
• Rosuvastatin Achieves LDL-C Goal When Other Statins Fall Short - Doctor's Guide, 4/1/03
• Statin Treatment Lowers Risk Level Of Patients With Multi-Vessel Disease - Doctor's Guide, 3/31/03
• Pravastatin Plays Significant Role in Preventing Progression of Coronary Atherosclerosis - Doctor's Guide, 3/28/03
• Stroke Prevention: Statin Drugs Show Most Effect - WebMD, 3/24/03
• Statin Studies Show Mixed Results - Psychiatry News, 3/21/03
• Ezetimibe Plus Lovastatin Offers New Treatment Option For Hypercholesterolemia - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/03
• Statins Improve Leg Functioning, Peripheral Arterial Disease Or Not - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/03
• Statins May Have Different Effects on Platelet Function - Doctor's Guide, 1/30/03
• Statins/Beta Blockers Impact On Certain C-Reactive Protein Levels - Doctor's Guide, 1/29/03 - "Some 93% of the 89 patients who did not use beta-blockers and were in the highest CRP category and had exercise-induced ischaemia, compared with 42% among patients in the lower four categories. Similarly, 94% of the 67 patients who did not use statins and were in the highest CRP category had exercise-induced ischaemia, compared with 44% in the lower four categories"
• Statin Therapy Does Not Slow Cognitive Decline - Clinical Psychiatry News, 1/03 - "pravastatin showed no effect at all on cognition in PROSPER. Similarly, simvastatin exerted no impact upon cognitive decline in the earlier 20,536-patient randomized double-blind Heart Protection Study ... It might be better to look at the use of antihypertensives in the elderly to prevent cognitive decline” based upon accumulating extremely promising clinical trials data on that score ... Prior statin trials in middle-aged patients have shown stroke prevention but not until after 5-6 years of treatment"
• Ezetimibe Plus Simvastatin Safely Improves Lipid Profile - Doctor's Guide, 1/17/03 - "Ezetimibe and simvastatin given together reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 44 to 57%, reduced triglycerides by 20 to 28% and raised high-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 8 to 11%, depending on the simvastatin dose" - Ezetimibe is a cholesterol absorption inhibitor, simvastatin is a statin.
• Bad Boy in the Blood: CRP - WebMD, 1/15/03 - "CRP doesn't just mark risk. It contributes to plaque formation in the blood-vessel wall. It promotes cholesterol uptake ... The most dazzling observation has been that in postmenopausal women, even those with low cholesterol levels, CRP identifies a three-fold increased risk for coronary artery disease ... When they added CRP to these cells, they saw dramatic effects. The cells began to secrete a substance called PAI-1. Increased PAI-1 secretion predicts formation of blood clots and heart disease. It also predicts diabetes and the pre-diabetes condition known as metabolic disorder ... You can lower your CRP levels by doing the same things you would do to lower your cholesterol levels: lose weight, eat fewer calories and a very low fat diet, take the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, and the natural form of vitamin E"
• Intense Heart-Smart Program Pays Off - WebMD, 1/14/03 - "The healthy benefits of a low-fat diet, regular exercise, and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may be much greater in combination than alone in helping people with heart disease prevent future heart attack, stroke, and even death. New research shows following a strict program that combines all three approaches can lower a person's chances of suffering a major heart-related problem from one in three to one in 15"
• Hypercholesterolaemic Children Benefit From Early Statin Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 1/9/03
• Atorvastatin, Simvastatin Effects Similar For Subclinical Atherosclerosis - Doctor's Guide, 1/7/03
• Anti-Cholesterol Statins Do Not Reduce Reproductive Hormones in Women of Child-Bearing Age - Doctor's Guide, 12/31/02
• Pravastatin Reduces Left Ventricular Mass Independently of Lipid Lowering Effect - Doctor's Guide, 12/30/02
• Statin-Niacin Combination Counters Dyslipidaemic Cardiovascular Risk - Doctor's Guide, 12/20/02 - "Combined statin-niacin is a safe, tolerated therapy that lowers low density lipoprotein cholesterol and raises high density lipoprotein cholesterol ... At niacin doses of at least 1000 (mean 1480) mg/day added to a constant statin regimen in 29 patients, high density lipoprotein cholesterol rose significantly (by 20 percent)"
• Results in Hypertensives with Elevated Cholesterol Similar with Pravastatin, Usual Care - Doctor's Guide, 12/18/02
• Statins Use Poor in Patients Requiring Cholesterol Management - Doctor's Guide, 12/12/02
• Statins Raise Heart Transplant Survival - WebMD, 12/9/02
• Statins Favourably Affect Heat Release from Atherosclerotic Plaques - Doctor's Guide, 11/25/02
• Statins Effective in Elderly, Too - WebMD, 11/18/02 - "Pravachol, a statin, is an equal-opportunity drug: The elderly get the same benefit as younger people ... patients who took 40 mg of Pravachol every day had a 20% reduction in heart disease death and non-fatal heart attacks. A reduction in strokes was not seen in this study ... There were, however, two downsides to the study: Patients taking Pravachol were more likely to develop new cancers during the study than patients taking dummy pills, and Pravachol didn't protect against memory and thinking problems associated with aging"
• More Evidence That Statins Cut Alzheimer's Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 11/02
• Statins May Increase Survival In Interstitial Pneumonitis - Doctor's Guide, 11/7/02
• Atorvastatin Every Other Day as Effective as Daily Dose in Lowering Cholesterol - Medscape, 10/25/02 - "At 12 weeks, LDL-C levels decreased by 35% in the alternate-day and by 38% in the daily group"
• Atorvastatin Shown to Decrease Heart Disease and Stroke in Patients with Hypertension And Low Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 10/11/02
• Statins May Help MS Patients - WebMD, 10/7/02
• Researchers Halt Successful Study On Cholesterol, Blood Pressure - Intelihealth, 10/11/02 - "Researchers in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes trial were giving the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin to patients who have normal or low levels of cholesterol but are at a risk of a heart attack or stroke because they have high blood pressure or other risk factors ... patients taking the prescription drug had significantly fewer strokes and heart attacks than those taking a placebo"
• Hearing Study Reveals Surprises - Intelihealth, 10/6/02 - "If preventing heart disease also saves hearing, it might offer another reason to take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins"
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Safe And Effective In Children - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/02
• Statins Can Reverse Plaque Buildup - WebMD, 9/23/02 - "Statin drugs can do more than just lower your LDL "bad" cholesterol. In high enough doses, they may be able to reverse the accumulation of artery-clogging plaques that lead to heart attack and stroke"
• FDA Looking for Grapefruit Interactions - Doctor's Guide, 9/23/02 - "If a drug has a large first pass effect, consuming grapefruit could cause a higher drug dose to enter the bloodstream through any of these actions ... Two drugs Dr. Piazza-Hepp cited as coming recently under suspicion are amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker, and atorvastatin" - See the cytochrome P450 system  - Ben
• Blood Test Doesn't Catch All Statin-Caused Muscle Problems - Intelihealth, 9/20/02 - "They have few serious side effects - many cardiologists tout them as being safer than aspirin. But they can cause rare cases of muscle destruction, some fatal ... a less severe form of statin-caused muscle toxicity weakens muscle without damaging the membranes that release CK into blood ... doctors should not dismiss statin users who have muscle pain despite a normal CK test"
• Rare Muscle Problem Linked to Statin Use - WebMD, 9/20/02
• Simvastatin Increases HDL and Apo-A1 Better Than Atorvastatin - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/02
• Early Simvastatin Therapy Improves Endothelial Function - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/02
• Simvastatin Protects against Endothelial Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 9/5/02
• Simvastatin Improves Cholesterol Profile more than Atorvastatin in the Metabolic Syndrome - Doctor's Guide, 9/4/02
• Cholesterol drug cited in nerve study - USA Today, 8/21/02 - "The drugs, called statins, raise a person's risk of nerve damage by nearly 15%, or roughly one case for every 2,200 patients age 50 or older"
• Statin side effect rare, but be aware - USA Today, 8/18/02
• Statins Benefit Patients at Risk for Coronary Disease, Even When Cholesterol Levels Are Normal - Medscape, 7/30/02 - "20,536 British patients (75% male; age range, 40 to 80) with total cholesterol levels of at least 135 mg/dL (3.5 mmol/L) were randomized to receive simvastatin (40 mg daily) or placebo for 5 years ... Five-year all-cause mortality was significantly lower in the simvastatin group than in the placebo group (12.9% vs. 14.7%) -- a difference attributable mainly to a significantly lower coronary death rate"
• Pravastatin Therapy May Help Protect Kidney Function In Patients With Well-Controlled Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/02
• Mayo Clinic Study Finds No Statistically Significant Benefit for Statins in Reducing Risk of Alzheimer's Disease - Doctor's Guide, 7/24/02
• Statin Use Associated with 39 percent Reduction in Risk of Alzheimer's Disease - Doctor's Guide, 7/23/02
• Relation of Statin Use and Bone Loss: A Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study in Early Postmenopausal Women - Doctor's Guide, 7/15/02
• Alternatives to HRT - WebMD, 7/10/02 - "A powerful class of drugs called statins reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood -- especially LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol. Statins have also been found to reduce stroke, may reduce osteoporosis, could be an adjunct treatment for cancer ."
• Cholesterol drugs may work on brain - USA Today, 7/9/02 - "too much cholesterol in the blood can clog arteries in a process that can lead to a heart attack. But many researchers now think that high blood cholesterol also affects the brain ... Excess cholesterol may be instrumental in the formation of senile plaque ... That plaque, the hallmark of Alzheimer's, is an abnormal cluster of dead or dying brain cells and toxic proteins that short-circuit memory and other crucial brain functions ... People taking statins reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer's by nearly 80%"
• Wider Guidelines Urged for Statins - WebMD, 7/5/02 - "Researchers say prescribing statins to a wider range of people could reduce heart attack and stroke rates by at least a third ... The clear message from this study is: 'Treat risk -- not cholesterol level,' ... These findings should tear up the rule book on statin prescribing"
• Zocor (Simvastatin) Saves Lives In High-Risk Patients, Regardless Of Cholesterol Level, Study In Lancet Shows - Diabetics, Women, Elderly Benefit In Largest Cholesterol Study Ever - Doctor's Guide, 7/5/02 - "simvastatin given daily at 40 mg reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by about one-fourth over the treatment period, which averaged 5.3 years ... When adjusted for non-compliance (inadvertent or deliberate failure to take medication) in the trial, investigators estimate that the risk reduction among this broad population is one-third ... Not only did we find that cholesterol-lowering treatment can protect a far wider range of people than was previously thought, but that the therapy we used in the study can prevent stroke as well as heart attack, in patients at risk of CHD even in people with already moderate or low cholesterol levels ... Patients with average or low cholesterol levels also achieved CHD risk reductions of about a quarter. When adjusted for non-compliance, Oxford researchers estimate that the risk of heart attack and stroke in this group would be reduced by one-third"
• Statins Protection Much Wider Than Thought - Doctor's Guide, 7/4/02
• Dutch Study Bolsters Evidence That Statins Help After Angioplasty - Intelihealth, 6/26/02
• Statins May Decrease Alzheimer's Risk by 79% - Clinical Psychiatry News, 6/02
• Vasoreactivity In Type 2 Diabetes Does Not Improve With Atorvastatin Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 5/21/02
• Cholesterol Drugs Have Painful Problem - WebMD, 5/13/02
• Low-Dose Atorvastatin Safe and Effective in Children - Doctor's Guide, 5/7/02
• Eight Year Follow-Up Shows Safety/Efficacy of Cholesterol-Lowering Pravastatin - Doctor's Guide, 4/22/02
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs may avert Alzheimer's - USA Today, 4/18/02
• Statins May Help Prevent Alzheimer's Disease - Doctor's Guide, 4/16/02
• New Test Predicts Sudden Death Risk - WebMD, 4/15/02 - "those who suffered sudden cardiac death had higher levels of a substance called C-reactive protein (CRP) ... CRP is released when blood vessels are inflamed ... the findings of this study show that the levels of CRP in the blood are even more telling than once thought ... we can intervene with lifestyle counseling and drugs like statins and aspirin"
• Statin Drugs May Fight Alzheimer's, Too - WebMD, 4/9/02 - "Statins block the vasoconstrictive [blood-vessel narrowing] effect of the A-beta protein -- a critical protein involved in Alzheimer's disease ... These drugs appear to have anti-inflammatory properties, independent of their benefit in lowering cholesterol, that may help protect against dementia" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.
• Combining Statin With Estrogen May Maximise Post-Menopausal Cardiovascular Benefits - Doctor's Guide, 4/5/02 - "Oral estrogen alone increased the median level of C-reactive protein from 0.27 to 0.46 mg/dL, equivalent to a 70 percent rise. On the other hand, simvastatin decreased C-reactive protein levels from 0.29 to 0.28 mg/dL. Oral estrogen combined with simvastatin increased C-reactive protein levels by 29 percent from 0.28 to 0.36 mg/dL" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.
• Statins May Inhibit Calcium Growth on Aortic Valve in Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 3/29/02 - "People who take statins may have at least 60 percent less aortic valve calcium than people who do not take statins"
• Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Reduces C-Reactive Protein In Acute Coronary Syndrome - Doctor's Guide, 3/19/02
• Risk of Fracture Reduced in Women Using Statins - Doctor's Guide, 3/19/02 - "Fracture risk is reduced by 60 percent in women using 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) ... This substantial risk reduction is greater than might be anticipated from increases in bone mineral density (BMD) alone"
• Statins May Preserve Brain Power - WebMD, 3/18/02 - "The study also found that statin use was associated with a lower risk of memory problems or dementia, regardless of total cholesterol level. The authors say more research is needed to understand exactly how statins seem to protect the brain, but they suspect that the drugs may work by improving muscle function and reducing inflammation"
• Statin Use, Bone Mineral Density, and Fracture Risk: Geelong Osteoporosis Study - Archives of Internal Medicine, 3/11/02 - "The substantial 60% reduction in fracture risk associated with statin use is greater than would be expected from increases in BMD alone"
• Stopping Statins May Cause Rebound that Triples Risk of Death - Doctor's Guide, 3/5/02
• Stopping Statins Can Be Deadly - WebMD, 3/4/02 - "the study adds evidence that statins may do more than just lower cholesterol, and that the drugs may protect the heart in other important ways ... recent research has shown that statins can reduce harmful inflammation in the arteries that can lead to blood clots ... also supports the idea that statins increase the release of protective nitric oxide in the inner walls of the heart. Animal research has shown that when the statins are suddenly withdrawn, a rebound effect occurs, and the nitric oxide levels drop below normal -- increasing the risk of heart attack or other cardiac events"
• Lipid-Lowering Agents Cut Dementia Risk With No Indication Bias - Doctor's Guide, 2/22/02
• Beta-Blockade Adds Value For Hypercholesterolemics On Statins - Doctor's Guide, 2/15/02
• Pravastatin Mortality Benefit In Patients With And Without Heart Disease - Doctor's Guide, 2/14/02
• Rosuvastatin More Effective Than Atorvastatin In Hypercholesterolemic Patients - Doctor's Guide, 2/13/02
• FDA Approves Pravachol (Pravastatin) 80 mg for Heart Disease - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/02
• Diet, Cholesterol Drug Combo Works Best - WebMD, 2/5/02 - "Drugs usually can lower cholesterol more than a healthy diet. But combining the two gives you the best effect ... the drug [Zocor] had some potentially harmful effects on antioxidant levels. Antioxidants help get rid of toxic chemicals produced in the body that may increase the risk of heart disease and even cancer. Zocor decreased levels of the antioxidants vitamin E, beta-carotene and ubiquinol-10 ... When the drug was taken alone, there also was another concerning finding. It increased insulin levels and raised insulin resistance ... The diet did not increase insulin levels or insulin resistance. In fact, it lowered both of them. This suggests that the diet may help prevent diabetes. Plus, the Mediterranean diet helped keep insulin levels and insulin resistance normal in men taking Zocor"
• Lescol/LescolXL (Fluvastatin) Maintains Favorable Efficacy/Safety Profile in Lipid Management - Doctor's Guide, 1/18/02
• WelChol (Colesevelam) Combination With Lipitor (atorvastatin) Cuts Cholesterol Levels Significantly - Doctor's Guide, 12/27/01
• Diabetic Patients on Statins Experience Fewer Lower Extremity Infections - Doctor's Guide, 12/19/01
• Statin Treatment In Coronary Heart Disease Lowers Levels Of Marker C-Reactive Protein - Doctor's Guide, 11/29/01
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Help - Intelihealth, 11/14/01
• Cholesterol Drugs Also May Work for Alzheimer's - WebMD, 11/13/01
• Treatment With Simvastatin Results In Artery Plaque Stabilization - Doctor's Guide, 11/12/01
• Welchol (Colesevelam) Effective in Reducing Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 10/22/01
• Hormone Therapy May Increase Risk of Gallstones - WebMD, 10/1/01 - "women taking statins -- the most popular type of cholesterol-lowering drug -- had a 45% drop in the chance they would need gallbladder surgery"
• Combined Analysis Underscores Safety, Efficacy of Lescol (Fluvastatin)/Lescol XL For Cholesterol Reduction - Doctor's Guide, 9/10/01
• Study Backs Cholesterol Drug Safety - Intelihealth, 9/4/01
• International Lipid Information Bureau Stands Behind Statin Safety - Doctor's Guide, 9/4/01
• Crestor (Rosuvastatin) Superior Impact On Lipid Levels Confirmed - Doctor's Guide, 9/3/01
• American College of Cardiology/Heart Association Reassure Statins Safe, Effective - Doctor's Guide, 8/30/01
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs' safety defended - USA Today, 8/30/01
• Cholesterol Drug Warnings Urged - Intelihealth, 8/21/01 - "For most of the 8 million Americans taking a statin other than Baycol, the benefits still outweigh the risks"
• Group wants warning on cholesterol drugs - CNN, 8/10/01 - "Washington D.C.-based Public Citizen says the class of drugs known as statins are responsible for an additional 50 deaths in the United States and should carry a more significant warning label ... Statins work by blocking a liver enzyme that causes cholesterol. In very rare instances it has been linked to a disease called Rhabdomyolysis, a potentially life threatening disease in which muscle cells are destroyed and released into the blood stream. In the worst-case scenario it causes patients to develop kidney failure."
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Baycol Pulled Off the Market - WebMD, 8/8/01
• Baycol (Cerivastatin) Not To Be Used In Combination With Gemfibrozil, Says Bayer - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/01 - "Statins are known to cause a rare side effect of muscle breakdown ... In a very small percentage of patients, there is a risk of muscle breakdown resulting in kidney damage, which in rare instances can lead to life-threatening kidney failure ... The risk of muscle breakdown is greater in patients taking gemfibrozil as well as other fibric acid derivatives (a group of cholesterol-lowering drugs), cyclosporine (an immunosuppressant), erythromycin (an antibiotic), azole antifungals, or lipid-lowering doses of niacin (nicotinic acid) together with statins including cerivastatin."
• Cholesterol drug has wider benefit - USA Today, 6/28/01 - [in addition to lowering cholesterol] "Cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, apparently work by reducing levels of a chemical known as C-reactive protein. This protein causes inflammation, promotes blood clotting and weakens fat-encased blockages inside arteries, causing them to burst"
• Blood Test Could Save More From Heart Attacks - WebMD, 6/27/01
• Blood Test Could Indicate Who Might Benefit From Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs - Intelihealth, 6/27/01 - "Half of all heart attack patients have normal cholesterol levels. A blood test can detect high levels of C-reactive protein - a sign of inflammation ... Statins block an enzyme needed to make cholesterol in the liver. They also reduce levels of C-reactive protein"
• Lipitor (Atorvastatin) Lowers Levels of LDL-Cholesterol in Women - Doctor's Guide, 6/21/01
• Statins May Be Effective For Controlling Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 6/21/01 - "statin treatment caused a significant (p<0.05) lowering of ambulatory systolic blood pressure (SBP) on the 24-hour (-4 mm Hg), daytime (-5 mm Hg), and nighttime (-3 mm Hg) measurements compared to baseline"
• Popular Drugs Called Statins Not Just for Cholesterol Anymore - WebMD, 6/14/01 - "may prevent yet another life threatening condition: deep vein thrombosis, or DVT"
• Pravastatin Improves Graft And Patient Survival In Kidney Transplant - Doctor's Guide, 5/28/01
• Atorvastatin Lowers C-Reactive Protein In Mixed And Diabetic Dyslipidemia - Doctor's Guide, 5/21/01
• WelChol (colesevelam HCl)/Zocor (simvastatin) Combo Better Than Zocor Alone - Doctor's Guide, 4/30/01 - "Treatment with WelChol (3.8 grams daily) decreased LDL-cholesterol levels by 16 percent, and Zocor (10 milligrams daily) reduced mean LDL-cholesterol levels by 26 percent; the combination appeared to be additive, with a 42 percent reduction"
• Cholesterol drug may prevent Alzheimer's - CNN, 5/1/01 - "What we found was that patients taking statins have a 60 to 70 percent reduction in the risk of Alzheimer's disease"
• Hit 'em Hard and Fast: Statins Early After Heart Attack Improve Outcomes, Save Lives, Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Work Even if Cholesterol Is Normal - WebMD, 4/3/01 - "When given to patients with mild heart attacks, the powerful cholesterol-lowering pill Lipitor not only lowered their risk of dying from their disease, but also significantly reduced the risk of future heart attacks and strokes"
• New Drug [rosuvastatin] Takes a Sledgehammer to High Cholesterol - WebMD, 3/20/01
• Heart Attack Patients Should Start Statin Drugs Before Leaving Hospital - WebMD, 1/23/01
• Quick drug use improves heart-attack survival - USA Today, 1/23/01
• Quick Drug Use Improves Heart Attack Survival Chances - Intelihealth, 1/23/01 - "In the study of 19,599 patients, those given statins at or before their release from the hospital were about 25 percent less likely to die within a year than those who did not receive the drugs."
• One Tiny Pill Takes on Heart Attack, Stroke, and Diabetes, Are Statins the Little Drugs That Can? - WebMD, 1/22/01
• Lipitor (Atorvastatin) Reduces Angina Recurrence, Urgent Re-admissions In Hospital In-patients - Doctor's Guide, 11/16/00
• Taking Statins Earlier May Reduce Risk of Heart Attack and Death - WebMD, 11/15/00
• Statin Plus Niacin Reduces Heart Attack Risk, Reverses Arterial Build-up - Doctor's Guide, 11/13/01
• Inflammation appears to do a number on human heart - CNN, 11/13/00 - "For now, though, doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center said they were fairly certain that one cause of inflammation is high cholesterol -- and that cholesterol-fighting drugs called 'statins' tend to help."
• Patients Taking Baycol (Cerivastatin) Reach Target Cholesterol Levels - Doctor's Guide, 11/2/00
• Study Refutes Relationship Between Statins And Bone Mineral Density - Doctor's Guide, 9/25/00
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs May Boost Blood Vessel Growth - WebMD, 8/29/00
• Pravastatin Therapy Decreases the Risk of Stroke - Medscape, 8/3/00
• Cholesterol-lowering Statins Linked To Lower Fracture Risk In Older Patients - Doctor's Guide, 6/27/00
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drug May Protect Women From Bone Fractures - Intelihealth, 6/23/00
• Lipid Lowering Drugs Seem to Have Benefits in Hypertension Control - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/00 - "A combination of lipid-lowering statins and an anti-hypertensive drug is more effective than an anti-hypertensive drug alone in reducing blood pressure among high-risk patients"
• Atorvastatin Better than Simvastatin for Achieving Total Cholesterol Targets - Doctor's Guide, 4/12/00
• Nicostatin (Niacin/Lovastatin) Reduces Cholesterol, Triglyceride Levels - Doctor's Guide, 3/16/00
• Zocor (Simvastatin) Increases HDL And apo A-I More Than Lipitor (Atorvastatin) - Doctor's Guide, 3/15/00
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Prevent Deaths After Threatened Or Actual Heart Attack - Doctor's Guide, 3/14/00
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs may lead to osteoporosis treatments - CNN, 12/3/99
• Pravastatin Appears To Reduce Incidence Of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 11/9/99
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Provide Double Protection Against Heart Disease - Doctor's Guide, 7/12/99
• Aggressive Cholesterol Lowering With Lipitor Reduces Cardiac Events - Doctor's Guide, 7/8/99
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs may work as well as heart surgery - CNN, 7/7/99
• Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs, Soy Milk And Tomato Extract All Reduce Cancer Risk - Doctor's Guide, 4/16/99
• Study Shows Significant Difference Between Two Statins In Raising HDL - Doctor's Guide, 8/25/98

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