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Statins

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

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:

• Statins Tied to Lower Stroke Risk in Atrial Fibrillation - Medscape, 4/28/23 - "transient ischemic attack (TIA) ... Statin use was associated with a significantly lower risk of all outcomes compared with nonuse. Statin users had a 17% reduced risk of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism, a 7% reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke, and a 15% rate of reduced risk of TIA ... We also found long-term statin use was associated with greater protection than short-term use," she said. For statin use of 6 years or longer, in comparison with use of 3 months to 2 years, the risk of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism was lowered by 43%; for hemorrhagic stroke, it was lowered by 44%, and for TIA, it was lowered by 42%"
• Effect of Ginkgo biloba extract on pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of atorvastatin in rats with hyperlipidaemia - Food Funct 2023 Mar 14 - "The results showed that statins combined with GBE could significantly improve the blood lipid parameters, reduce the liver fat content, and reduce the size of adipocytes in abdominal fat. The effect was superior to statin therapy alone. In addition, the combination has shown additional liver protection against possible pathological liver injury or statin-induced liver injury. A lipidomic study showed that GBE could regulate the abnormal lipid metabolism of the liver in hyperlipemia. When statins are combined with GBE, this callback effect introduced by GBE on endogenous metabolism has important implications for resistance to disease progression and statin resistance. Finally, in the presence of GBE, there was a significant increase in plasma statin exposure. These results all confirmed that GBE has incremental benefits as a dietary supplement of statin therapy for dyslipidaemia" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Association of Statin Adherence With the Development of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Nested Case-Control Study Using a Japanese Claims Database - Ann Pharmacother 2022 Sep 27 - "Good adherence was significantly associated with a reduced risk of NAFLD development (adjusted OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.78-0.86). Higher intensity was not significantly associated with a reduced risk of NAFLD development (adjusted OR, 1.02 ... Good adherence to statins is associated with a reduced risk of NAFLD development, regardless of the statin intensity. Appropriate statin therapy could reduce the risk of NAFLD development"
• N-3 fatty acid supplementation mediates lipid profile, including small dense LDL, when combined with statins: a randomized double blind placebo controlled trial - Lipids Health Dis 2022 Sep 1 - "Supplementation with n-3 FA plus atorvastatin led to significant reductions in serum non-HDL-C (- 9.5% vs 4.7%, P < 0.01), TG (- 21.5% vs 6.2%, P < 0.001) and VLDL-C (- 36.9% vs 4.0%, P < 0.001) and TC (- 6.6% vs 2.1%, P < 0.001). Between the groups, no significant difference in percent change in the serum concentration of LDL-C, HDL-C, as well as in the LDL I and LDL II subclasses was observed ... In this group of hyperlipidemic patients on a stable statin prescription, OM3 plus atorvastatin improved small dense LDL concentrations, non-HDL-C, VLDL-C and TG to a greater extent than atorvastatin alone" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com.
• Reduction in Serum LDL Cholesterol Using a Nutrient Compendium in Hyperlipidemic Adults Unable or Unwilling to Use Statin Therapy: A Double-Blind Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial - J Nutr 2022 Jan 26 - "Many hyperlipidemic patients prescribed β-hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) are unable or unwilling to take them ... This multicenter, randomized, double-blind, free-living crossover study was composed of 2 regimented phases of 4 wk each, separated by a 4-wk washout. Eighteen men and 36 women, with a mean ± SD age of 49 ± 12 y and mean ± SD LDL cholesterol of 131 ± 32.1 mg/dL, were instructed to ingest a variety of ready-to-eat snacks twice daily as a substitute for something they were consuming already. Other behavior changes were actively discouraged. Treatment products provided ≥5 g fiber, 1000 mg ω-3 (n-3) fatty acids, 1000 mg phytosterols, and 1800 μmol antioxidants per serving. Control products were calorie-matched like-items drawn from the general grocery marketplace ... Comparing intervention phase endpoints, LDL cholesterol was reduced a mean ± SD of 8.80 ± 1.69% (P < 0.0001), and TC was reduced a mean ± SD of 5.08 ± 1.12% (P < 0.0001) by treatment foods compared with control foods, whereas effects on other analytes did not differ between treatments. SNPs were not significantly related to outcomes (P ≥ 0.230). Compliance with study foods was 95%"
• The effect of 8 weeks of physical training on muscle performance and maximal fat oxidation rates in patients treated with simvastatin and coenzyme Q10 supplementation - J Physiol 2021 Dec 10 - "Simvastatins are prescribed for treatment of elevated cholesterol, but they may negatively impact metabolism, muscle performance and the response to training. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) supplementation may alleviate some of these effects ... simvastatin treatment decreases plasma concentrations of total CoQ10, but this can be alleviated by simultaneous supplementation with CoQ10" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• Statin use and mortality in COVID-19 patients: Updated systematic review and meta-analysis - Atherosclerosis 2021 Jun 25 - "This meta-analysis of retrospective observational studies showed that statin therapy was associated with an about 35% decrease in the adjusted risk of mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients"
• Statins, vascular calcification, and vitamin K-dependent proteins: Is there a relation? - Kaohsiung J Med Sci 2021 Feb 26 - "The present cross-sectional clinical study aimed to examine the connection between statin exposure, coronary artery calcification (CAC), and vitamin K-dependent proteins (VKDPs) in patients with cardiovascular (CV) conditions. Two groups of patients were studied: patients with established CV disease (CVD) and healthy patients at moderate risk for CVD (a control group). The groups were also split into statin users and non-users. The following VKDPs were measured in plasma: uncarboxylated Matrix Gla-protein (ucMGP), undercarboxylated (ucOC), and carboxylated osteocalcin (cOC), Gla-rich protein (GRP). CAC score (CACS) was determined by multislice computed tomography. Among all the participants in the study, CACS was more pronounced in statin users compared to non-users; the same was found also among the CVD patients and among the controls. While the levels of ucMGP and GRP did not differ between statin users and non-users, ucOC and ucOC/cOC were significantly elevated in statin users, indicating vitamin K deficiency. There was a positive correlation between the levels of ucOC and CACS in the entire population and in the group of statin users, but not in statin non-users. No association was found between ucMGP or GRP and CACS. Statins had also an impact on the international normalized ratio and interacted with vitamin K antagonists (VKAs). Our results are in agreement with the existing evidence about positive association between statins and vascular calcification. They enlighten to a certain extent the possible mechanisms through which statins may enhance calcium accumulation in arterial wall, namely, by inhibition of vitamin K dependent proteins and functions involved in vascular protection." -  [Nutra USA] - See vitamin k2 at Amazon.com.
• Statins starve cancer cells to death - Science Daily, 3/12/20 - "Devreotes and his team began the new study with an unbiased screen of about 2,500 drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to see which ones had the best kill rate of cells genetically engineered to have a mutation in a cancer gene called PTEN. The gene codes for an enzyme that suppresses tumor growth. Among the thousands of drugs, statins and in particular pitavastatin, emerged as a top contender in cancer-killing ability. Most of the other drugs had no effect or killed normal and engineered cells at the same rate. Equal concentrations of pitavastatin caused cell death in nearly all of the engineered cells, but very in few normal cells"
  • Pitavastatin - wikipedia.org - "It was patented in 1987 and approved for medical use in 2003.[2] It is available in Japan, South Korea and in India.[3] In the US, it received FDA approval in 2009"
• Effect of high-dose oral multivitamins and minerals in participants not treated with statins in the randomized Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) - Am Heart J. 2018 Jan;195:70-77 - "In a prespecified subgroup analysis of participants not on statin therapy at baseline in the TACT, a high-dose complex oral multivitamins and multimineral regimen was found to have a large unexpected benefit compared with placebo .. High-dose oral multivitamin and multimineral supplementation seem to decrease combined cardiac events in a stable, post-MI population not taking statin therapy at baseline" - See Garden of Life, Vitamin Code, 50 & Wiser Men at Amazon.com and Garden of Life, Vitamin Code, 50 & Wiser Women at Amazon.com.
• Statin Use, Serum Lipids, and Prostate Inflammation in Men with a Negative Prostate Biopsy: Results from the REDUCE Trial - Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2017 May 9 - "Given the possible role for inflammation in prostate cancer, the inverse association between statins and prostate inflammation suggests a mechanism linking statins with lower advanced prostate cancer risk"
• Statin treatment alters serum n-3 to n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio in patients with dyslipidemia - Lipids Health Dis. 2015 Jul 7;14(1):67 - "Serum docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels decreased significantly at 12 weeks in both groups (rosuvastatin: from 169.6 to 136.3 μg/mL, p = 0.006; pitavastatin: from 188.6 to 153.9 μg/mL, p = 0.03). However, serum levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and arachidonic acid (AA) did not change. In addition, the EPA/AA ratio did not change, whereas the DHA/AA ratio decreased significantly at 12 weeks in both groups (rosuvastatin: from 0.99 to 0.80, p = 0.01; pitavastatin: from 1.14 to 0.91, p = 0.003)" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Berberis aristata combined with Silybum marianum on lipid profile in patients not tolerating statins at high doses - Atherosclerosis. 2014 Dec 24 - "To evaluate the effects of Berberis aristata combined with Silybum marianum in dyslipidemic patients intolerant to statins at high doses ... B. aristata/S. marianum reduced fasting plasma glucose (-9 mg/dl), insulin (-0.7 μU/ml), and HOMA-index (-0.35) levels compared to baseline and also to placebo. Lipid profile did not significantly change after 6 months since the reduction of statin dosage and the introduction of B. aristata/S. marianum, while it worsened in the placebo group both compared to placebo and with active treatment (+23.4 mg/dl for total cholesterol, +19.6 mg/dl for LDL-cholesterol, +23.1 mg/dl for triglycerides with placebo compared to B. aristata/S. marianum). We did not record any variations of safety parameters in nether of groups" - See silymarin at Amazon.com and berberine at Amazon.com.
• Curcumin enhances cell-surface LDLR level and promotes LDL uptake through down-regulation of PCSK9 gene expression in HepG2 cells - Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014 Aug 27 - "Curcumin exhibits hypolipidemic activity and may serve as a useful supplement to statin treatment for hypercholesterolemia" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.
• Effects of vitamin D on plasma lipid profiles in statin-treated patients with hypercholesterolemia: A randomized placebo-controlled trial - Clin Nutr. 2014 May 2 - "Patients with hypercholesterolemia were enrolled in this single-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in Beijing (39°54' N). Fifty-six patients were randomly assigned to receive vitamin D (n = 28, 2000 IU/d) or a placebo (n = 28) as an add-on to statin ... At 6 months, the primary end point, a difference in the fall of serum total cholesterol levels between the vitamin D and placebo groups after 6 months of treatment was significant -22.1 mg/dl (95% CI -32.3; -12.2) (p < 0.001). The difference between the groups in the fall of serum triglyceride levels after 6 months of treatment was -28.2 mg/dl (95% CI -48.8; -8.4) (p < 0.001)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Stabilizing effect of combined eicosapentaenoic acid and statin therapy on coronary thin-cap fibroatheroma - Atherosclerosis. 2014 Mar 5;234(1):114-119 - "The addition of highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to statin therapy prevents cardiovascular events ... Patients were randomly assigned to EPA (1800 mg/day) + statin (23 TCFA, 15 patients) or statin only (26 TCFA, 15 patients) treatment. The statin (rosuvastatin) dose was adjusted to achieve a target low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level of <70 mg/dL ... The concomitant use of EPA and rosuvastatin may stabilize vulnerable plaques better than the statin alone, possibly by suppressing arterial inflammation" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.
• Coenzyme Q10 supplementation improves metabolic parameters, liver function and mitochondrial respiration in rats with high doses of atorvastatin and a cholesterol-rich diet - Lipids Health Dis. 2014 Jan 25;13(1):22 - "The aim of this study was to evaluate the actions of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on rats with a cholesterol-rich diet (HD) and high doses of atorvastatin (ATV ... Two experiments were done, the first one without coenzyme Q10 supplementation. On the second experiment all groups received coenzyme Q10 0.57 mg/day as supplement. After a 6-week treatment animals were sacrificed, blood and liver were analyzed and liver mitochondria were isolated ... the combined administration of ATV and CoQ10 improved biochemical parameters, liver function and mitochondrial respiration in hypercholesterolemic rats" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• CoQ10 and L-carnitine for Statin Myalgia? - Medscape, 1/4/13 - "In summary, it has been proposed that CoQ10 can help to treat statin myalgia. While this is not conclusive, there are two randomized controlled trials showing significant improvements in the severity of muscle pain with the use of CoQ10 in patients treated with statins. Thus, it is not unreasonable to supplement a patient who is experiencing muscle pains on a statin with CoQ10. While there are no clinical trials showing improvements in muscle pain with the use of l-carnitine, patients who experience statin myalgia frequently have carnitine abnormalities. It is too soon to recommend l-carnitine for statin myalgia, but future trials should test this supplement to see if it has any place for this adverse effect. Other common alternatives for treating statin myalgias are supplementation with vitamin D or vitamin B12, especially in the setting of suboptimal serum levels" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com, GPLC at Amazon.com and acetyl l-carnitine products at Amazon.com.
• Cholesterol medicine affects energy production in muscles - Science Daily, 1/3/13 - "A well-known side effect of statin therapy is muscle pain. Up to 75 per cent of the physically active patients undergoing treatment for high cholesterol experience pain. This may keep people away from either taking their medicine or from taking exercise -- both of which are bad choices ... Scientists also showed that the patients examined who were being treated with statins had low levels of the key protein Q10. Q10 depletion and ensuing lower energy production in the muscles could be the biological cause of the muscle pain that is a problem for many patients" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• 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 Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• 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 probiotics at Amazon.com.
• 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 Amazon.com.
• 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 at Amazon.com.

• 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 ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• 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 ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• 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 at Amazon.com and Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• 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 at Amazon.com and Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• 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 Amazon.com.
• 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 Amazon.com.
• 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 ubiquinol at Amazon.com.
• 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 niacin at Amazon.com.  My favorite is Twinlab niacin 1000mg at Amazon.com.
• 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 ubiquinol at Amazon.com.
• 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 ubiquinol at Amazon.com.
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Policosonal: Nature's Cholesterol Balancer - Vitamin Research News, 2/04 - "Statin drugs are also known to cause male impotence" - See policosanol at Amazon.com.
• 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 policosanol at Amazon.com.  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 psyllium husk at Amazon.com.
• 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 Amazon.com
• 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"

Other News:

• Statins Appear to Guard Against Liver Disease Progression - Medscape, 5/12/23 - "234 (6.1%) statin users developed severe liver disease vs 276 (7.1%) non-users, with incidence rates of 10.5 vs 18.1 per 1000 person-years, respectively ... Statin use was associated with a statistically significant 40% lower rate of severe liver disease (hazard ratio [HR], 0.60 ... Statin use was also associated with lower rates of progression to cirrhosis (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.49 - 0.78), HCC (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.27 - 0.71), and liver-related death or liver transplant (HR, 0.55"
• The effect of statins on bone turnover biomarkers: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Endocr J 2023 Mar 15 - "The results showed that statins increased the osteocalcin (OC) ... Statins increase bone formation biomarker OC and decrease bone resorption biomarker NTX and CTX levels"
  • Osteocalcin—A Versatile Bone-Derived Hormone - Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2018; 9: 794 - "osteocalcin is secreted solely by osteoblasts but only has minor effects on bone mineralization and density. Instead, it has been reported to control several physiological processes in an endocrine manner, such as glucose homeostasis and exercise capacity, brain development, cognition, and male fertility"
• Metformin and simvastatin exert additive antitumour effects in glioblastoma via senescence-state: clinical and translational evidence - EBioMedicine 2023 Mar 10 - "Glioblastoma is one of the most devastating and incurable cancers due to its aggressive behaviour and lack of available therapies, being its overall-survival from diagnosis ∼14-months. Thus, identification of new therapeutic tools is urgently needed. Interestingly, metabolism-related drugs (e.g., metformin/statins) are emerging as efficient antitumour agents for several cancers ... Altogether, metformin and simvastatin reduce aggressiveness features in glioblastomas, being this effect significantly more effective (in vitro/in vivo) when both drugs are combined, offering a clinically relevant opportunity that should be tested for their use in humans" - See metformin at ReliableRX and simvastatin at ReliableRXPharmacy.
• Cholesterol drug lowers heart attack risk; avoids muscle side effects - Washington Post, 3/4/23 - "Now, new research shows that a different cholesterol drug, called bempedoic acid, can significantly lower heart attack risk in the statin-intolerant. The drug, sold under the brand name Nexletol, will not replace statins as a first-line therapy, but the new data shows the pill is an effective alternative for a large number of adults at high risk of heart attack who cannot or will not take a statin"
• Statin use may reduce risk of brain-bleed strokes up to 38 percent - Washington Post, 12/20/22 - "The study found that longer use of statins was linked to a lower risk for experiencing an intracerebral hemorrhage, ranging from a 16 percent lower risk for shorter-term use to a 38 percent lower risk for those who had taken statins for five years or more. The researchers also found that the location of the bleeding in the brain did not affect the risk reductions."
• Statins' efficacy in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis - Clin Nutr 2022 Aug 8 - "Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is closely related with the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Currently there is no approved medication for NAFLD. Although it has been suggested that statins can be safely used by patients with elevated liver enzymes, their effect on NAFLD has not been clearly defined ... Statins effectively decrease liver enzymes and beneficially affect liver histology in NAFLD patients" - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Statins may provide protection against depression - Science Daily, 5/17/22 - "Participants taking statins were less likely to recognize fearful or angry faces and more likely to report them as positive, indicating they had reduced negative emotional bias ... taking a statin medication was associated with significantly lower levels of negative emotional bias when interpreting facial expressions; this was not seen with other medications, such as blood pressure medications ... It remains unclear exactly how statins could protect against mental illness, but one possibility is that they may work through anti-inflammatory mechanisms, which have also been implicated in depression" - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Statin Use Is Associated With a Lower Risk of Blepharitis: A Population-Based Study -Front Med (Lausanne) 2022 Mar 15 - "Blepharitis is a common eye disorder that may be overlooked by patients and clinical practitioners. The symptoms of blepharitis often manifest as irritation, a burning sensation, grittiness, and itchiness and may decrease visual acuity if not treated promptly. Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), a common cause of blepharitis, is believed to be associated with increased inflammatory marker levels that may disrupt the composition of lipids produced by the sebaceous glands in the eyelids and ultimately cause tear film instability ... The incidence of blepharitis was 3.04% with statin treatment and 3.72% without statin treatment (p < 0.001). Patients who used statins had a lower risk of developing blepharitis [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.746, p < 0.001] than those who did not. In addition, diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, chalazion, rosacea, Sjogren syndrome, psoriasis and atopy were found to be possible risk factors for blepharitis"
• Do older adults using statins have lower risk of developing Parkinsonism later? - Science Daily, 3/22/22 - "Out of 936 people taking statins, 418 people, or 45%, developed parkinsonism six years later, compared to 1,014 out of 1,905 people, or 53%, of those who had not been taking statins ... After controlling for age, sex and vascular risks like smoking and diabetes that could affect risk of parkinsonism, researchers found that people who had been taking statins, on average, had 16% lower risk of developing parkinsonism six years later compared to those who had not been taking statins. About 79% of people on statin therapy were taking moderate or high intensity statins. Researchers found that people taking higher intensity statins had a 7% lower risk of developing parkinsonism compared to those on low intensity statins ... those who had been using statins had, on average, 37% lower odds of having atherosclerosis compared to those who had not been using statins" - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Statin intolerance is 'over-estimated and over-diagnosed' - Science Daily, 2/15/22 - "statin intolerance is over-estimated and over-diagnosed, with the result that patients are at greater risk of heart and blood vessel problems, including death, caused by high cholesterol levels ... They found that the overall prevalence was 9.1%. Prevalence was even less when assessed according to diagnostic criteria from the National Lipid Association, the ILEP and the European Atherosclerosis Society: 7%, 6.7% and 5.9% respectively ... people who were older, female, of Black or Asian race, obese, or suffering from diabetes, under-active thyroid glands, or chronic liver or kidney failure were more likely to be statin intolerant. In addition, drugs to control irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), calcium channel blockers (often prescribed for chest pain and high blood pressure), alcohol use and higher statin doses were associated with a higher risk of statin intolerance. The increased risk of statin intolerance ranged from 22% (high alcohol consumption) to 48% (being female) in these groups"
• Atorvastatin protects against liver and vascular damage in a model of diet induced steatohepatitis by resetting FXR and GPBAR1 signaling - FASEB J 2022 Jan;36(1):e22060 - "Atorvastatin increased the percentage of 7α-dehydroxylase expressing bacteria in the intestine promoting the formation of deoxycholic acid and litocholic acid, two GPBAR1 agonists, along with the expression of GPBAR1-regulated genes in the white adipose tissue and colon. In conclusion, present results highlight the central role of bile acids in regulating lipid and cholesterol metabolism in response to atorvastatin and provide explanations for limited efficacy of FXR agonists in the treatment of NAFLD"
• Statin use and incidence and mortality of breast and gynecology cancer: A cohort study using the National Health Insurance claims database - Int J Cancer 2021 Nov 9 - "breast and gynecologic cancers ... The aHRs for the association between the risk of each cancer and statin use were 0.88 (95% CI 0.79-0.97) for breast cancer and 0.83 (95% CI 0.67-0.99) for cervix uteri cancer. Statin use was associated with decreased breast cancer mortality (HR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.43-0.99) and total gynecologic cancer mortality (HR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.50-0.98). A dose-response relationship was only found for all-cancer mortality. Statin use for at least 6 months was significantly associated with a lower risk of breast and cervix uteri cancer incidence, and with lower mortality of breast and gynecologic cancers"
• Lipid-Modifying Agents to Treat or Prevent COVID-19? - Medscape, 10/26/21 - "statins inhibit 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase and the production of isoprenoid intermediates, which are "critical for viral entry, immune signaling, and the inflammatory cascade." They induce transcription factors that limit inflammation and prothrombotic functions of activated endothelial cells ... statins have antioxidant and antiapoptotic effects, potentiate nitric oxide production, and upregulate transforming growth factor beta receptor III, leading to less collagen deposition and pulmonary fibrosis ... Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids "act as a precursor to lipid mediators that reduce inflammation" and may therefore be beneficial in addressing the COVID-19 inflammatory response ... Niacin increases HDL cholesterol levels, may reduce inflammatory mediators, and may also possess antiviral activity"
• Statins linked to reduced risk of death from COVID-19 in major population study - Science Daily, 10/14/21 - "Our results suggest that statin treatment can have a moderate prophylactic effect on COVID-19 mortality"
• Association of Statins with Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes Patients with Intensive Glycemic Therapy - Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2021 Aug 12 - "total mortality (TM) ... Statins may alleviate the risk of TM in T2DM patients receiving intensive glycemic therapy"
• Statins may improve survival for triple-negative breast cancer patients - Science Daily, 8/3/21 - "Researchers found a 58% relative improvement in breast cancer-specific survival and a 30% relative improvement in overall survival with statin use. The median follow-up was 3.3 years for breast cancer-specific survival and 4.4 years for overall survival ... Researchers also found a statistically significant association between lipophilic statins (L-statin: simvastatin, atorvastatin, lovastatin, fluvastatin, pitavastatin) and improved overall survival ... We know that statins decrease breast cancer cell division and increase cell death"
• Common medication used to reduce cholesterol levels may reduce COVID-19 severity - Science Daily, 7/15/21 - "the use of statins or an anti-hypertension medication was associated with a 32 percent lower risk of death among COVID-19 inpatients with a history of cardiovascular disease or hypertension"
• Statins Linked to Lower Cancer Rate in Heart Failure Patients - Medscape, 6/24/21 - "In this large-population study in heart failure patients, we found a 16% reduction in the incidence of cancer and a 36% reduction in cancer deaths in patients taking statins compared to those not taking statins"
• Statin use is associated with lower prevalence of advanced liver fibrosis in patients with type 2 diabetes - Metabolism 2021 Mar 11 - "Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are at increased risk of both cardiovascular disease (CVD) and advanced liver fibrosis related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Statin use is known to reduce the incidence of CVD while evidence on an effect on NAFLD severity is limited ... After adjustment for age, sex, race-ethnicity, BMI, albumin, total cholesterol, HbA1c, triglycerides and liver enzymes, statin use was associated with lower odds of advanced fibrosis (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.13-0.90, p = 0.03). No significant interaction was found between statin use and steatosis"
• Statin use associated with increased survival in severe COVID-19 - Science Daily, 2/26/21 - "People who took statins to lower cholesterol were approximately 50% less likely to die if hospitalized for COVID-19 ... In addition to their well-known cholesterol-lowering effect, statins are known for their anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and immunomodulatory properties"
• Statins Linked to Reduced Postop Adhesions, Bowel Obstruction - Medscape, 2/11/21 - "adhesion-related complications (ARCs) ... Investigators retrospectively studied two cohorts of patients who underwent intra-abdominal surgery, comprising more than 1.3 million individuals, and found that statin use was associated with a reduction of up to 20% in rates of ARCs over time, after adjustment for other comorbidities and patient characteristics. The association was not found in individuals using other lipid-lowering or antihypertensive therapies."
• The Impact of Statin Use prior to intensive Care Unit (icu) Admission on critically Ill Patients with sepsis -Pharmacotherapy 2021 Jan 22 - "length of stay (LOS) ... Among patients with sepsis admitted to the medical ICU, pre-ICU statin use is causally associated with a decrease in 30-day ICU mortality, ICU LOS, and 30-day in-hospital mortality compared to non-use. This study adds to the totality of evidence on the pleiotropic effect of statin use in patients with sepsis"
• Statins may protect the heart from chemotherapy treatment of early breast cancer - Science Daily, 1/6/21 - "In the 666 pairs of women (median age 69) treated with anthracyclines, those taking statins were 55% less likely to be treated at the hospital for heart failure (1.2% vs. 2.9%). In the 390 pairs of women (median age 71) treated with trastuzumab, those taking statins were 54% less likely to be treated at the hospital for heart failure (2.7% vs. 3.7%), a trend that did not reach statistical significance. "Our findings support the idea that statins may be a potential intervention for preventing heart failure in patients receiving chemotherapy with anthracyclines and potentially trastuzumab,"" - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Side effects often attributed to statins were the same for those taking a placebo - AHA, 11/15/20 - "Study participants who reported side effects from cholesterol-lowering medications known as statins also reported the same side effects when they unknowingly took placebo pills ... These side effects are real, and it appears may be mostly due to the psychological rather than the pharmacological effects of statins since symptoms were consistent when taking the placebo" - [Medscape]
• Statins Linked to Lower Risk for Colorectal Cancer - Medscape, 10/28/20 - "In more than 15,000 patients with IBD, statin use was associated with a 60% reduced risk of CRC ... In the non-IBD population, statin use was associated with a 20% reduced risk of CRC"
• Statins may reduce cancer risk through mechanisms separate to cholesterol - Science Daily, 10/13/20 - "Taken together, these results suggest that inhibiting HMGCR with statins may help reduce cancer risk though non-lipid lowering mechanisms, and that this role may apply across cancer sites ... This effect may operate through other properties of statins, including dampening down inflammation or reducing other chemicals produced by the same cellular machinery which synthesises cholesterol"
• Statins reduce COVID-19 severity, likely by removing cholesterol that virus uses to infect - Science Daily, 9/23/20 - "In short, removing cholesterol from cell membranes prevents the coronavirus from getting in ... statin use prior to hospital admission for COVID-19 was associated with a more than 50 percent reduction in risk of developing severe COVID-19, compared to those with COVID-19 but not taking statins. Patients with COVID-19 who were taking statins prior to hospitalization also recovered faster than those not taking the cholesterol-lowering medication ... statins are likely beneficial in preventing or reducing the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection because, while intended to remove cholesterol from blood vessels, they are also removing cholesterol from cell membranes. As a result, the coronavirus can't get in"
• Cholesterol drug combinations could cut health risk - Science Daily, 8/28/20 - "even among patients who are already receiving optimal doses of statins, greater use of other, non-statin cholesterol-lowering drugs could help to further reduce cholesterol levels and potentially improve health outcomes for those most at risk ... After diet and lifestyle, cholesterol lowering with medications is a key approach to lowering risk of heart disease and strokes ... But a number of other classes of cholesterol-lowering drugs are available, which act on different elements of the body's cholesterol-metabolism. These treatments, such as ezetimibe, bempedoic acid, or PCSK9 inhibitors, can be used in combination with statins to further reduce LDL-cholesterol levels ... overall, less than half of patients were achieving the most recent cholesterol-lowering goals set out by guidelines. Among patients receiving high-intensity statins, 2019 LDL-C goals were achieved in 22% of patients with established cardiovascular disease. However, among the patients receiving statins with a PCSK9 inhibitor about two thirds attained the new" - Note:  I take half the prescribed statin dose and add Sytrinol, policosanol and red yeast rice.  Synergy!
• Statins Linked to Reduced Mortality in COVID-19 - Medscape, 8/28/20 - "The four studies — one of "moderate" quality and three of "good" quality — included a total of 8990 COVID-19 patients ... In the pooled analysis, there was a significantly reduced risk for fatal or severe COVID-19 with use of statins compared to non-use of statins (pooled HR, 0.70"
• Among older adults, statin use tied to decreased risk of early death - Science Daily, 7/7/20 - "those who were not treated with statins. The risk of dying from a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, was lower by 20 percent"
• Improved gut microbiota with cholesterol-lowering medication - Science Daily, 6/15/20 - "The positive and hitherto unknown effect of statins identified by the researchers was that the proportion of individuals with Bact2 decreased in the group given statin therapy, resulting in a more normal gut microbiota"
• Cholesterol Drugs Might Help Curb Prostate Cancers - WebMD, 2/14/20 - "statins, taken alone or with metformin, did seem associated with an increase in survival ... Men who took both statins and metformin had higher median survival (3.9 years) than those who took statins alone (3.6 years), metformin alone (3.1 years), or those who did not take either drug (3.1 years)"
• Statins were associated with a reduced gastric cancer risk in patients with eradicated Helicobacter pylori infection: a territory-wide propensity score matched study - Biol Pharm Bull. 2019;42(12):2002-2008 - "statins were associated with a lower GC risk (SHR 0.34; 95% CI:0.19-0.61), in a duration- and dose-response manner"
• Statin Drugs Not Linked to Memory Decline in Study - NYT, 11/18/19 - "There has been some evidence that statins cause cognitive problems, and enough case reports to make the Food and Drug Administration require a warning label on the medicines. But a large Australian study reports that the cholesterol-lowering drugs are not associated with a decline in memory or thinking ability ... The rate of cognitive decline was the same in those who used statins continuously and those who never took them. Brain volume changes were the same in statin users and in those who never used the drugs. In participants with heart disease and a genetic disposition to Alzheimer’s disease, statin use was actually associated with better scores on some memory tests"
• Statin Use Over 65 Years of Age and All-Cause Mortality - Medscape, 11/8/19 - "The analysis included 19 518 older adults followed during 10 years (median = 9.7 y). All-cause mortality rates were 34% lower among those who had adhered to statin treatment, compared with those who had not (hazard ratio [HR] = .66; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .56-.79). Adherence to statins was also associated with fewer atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events (HR = .80; 95% CI = .71-.81). The benefit of statin use did not diminish among beyond age 75 and was evident for both women and men"
• It is never too late to start statins for clogged leg arteries - Science Daily, 9/3/19 - "Around 200 million people worldwide have peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a condition in which arteries in the legs are clogged. This restricts blood flow to the legs and raises the chances of stroke and heart attack. Around 30% of patients have pain and cramping in their legs when they walk -- referred to as intermittent claudication -- while others have gangrene in the feet due to poor circulation ... This study examined whether adherence to statin therapy influenced survival in patients with symptomatic PAD ... The dose of drug also increased between the two time periods, which was paralleled by a significant drop in LDL cholesterol from 97 to 82 mg/dL ... Patients who stopped taking a statin had a similar mortality rate (33%) to those who never took the drug (34%). Adhering to statins throughout the 50 months was linked with a 20% rate of death ... Taking high-dose statins throughout the study was linked with the lowest mortality rate (10%), while reducing the dosage during the study was related to the highest death rate (43%) ... All PAD patients should take statins, preferably very potent statins, like rosuvastatin 40 mg or atorvastatin 80 mg, or at the highest tolerable dose. In the rare case of statin intolerance, which was around 2% in our study, alternative lipid lowering therapies must be considered"
• Cardiovascular effect of discontinuing statins for primary prevention at the age of 75 years: a nationwide population-based cohort study in France - Eur Heart J. 2019 Jul 30 - "Statin discontinuation was associated with a 33% increased risk of admission for cardiovascular event in 75-year-old primary prevention patients"
• Statins Provide Heart Benefits Past Age 75 - NYT, 8/5/19 - "The retrospective study, published in the European Heart Journal, included 120,173 people who turned 75 while taking statins. None had any heart problems ... Over two years, 5,396 were hospitalized for cardiovascular disease and 17,204 stopped their pills. They stopped for various reasons, most often because they were hospitalized or admitted to a skilled nursing facility during the course of the study ... Compared with those who continued their medication, those who stopped had a 46 percent increased risk for a coronary problem like heart attack or heart failure, and a 26 percent increased risk for stroke."
• Aerobic Exercise Performance and Muscle Strength in Statin Users - Medscape, 7/29/19 - "muscle pain (myalgia) ... The response rate for the survey was 51% and data showed a prevalence of statin-associated myalgia in 19% of responders using statins. The experimental study showed no difference between the groups in aerobic capacity (C, 29 ± 1 mL O2·min−1·kg−1; M, 27 ± 1 mL O2·min−1·kg−1; NM, 28 ± 1 mL O2·min−1·kg−1) or maximal fat oxidation (C, 247 ± 26 mg·min−1; M, 295 ± 24 mg·min−1; NM, 279 ± 17 mg·min−1). Measurements of strength were similar in all three groups including rate of force development (C, 795 ± 56 N·m·s−1; M, 930 ± 93 N·m·s−1; NM, 971 ± 57 N·m·s−1) and leg extension power (C: 2.6 ± 0.2; M: 2.3 ± 0.1; NM: 2.4 ± 0.1 W·kg−1)"
• Long-term statin use associated with lower glaucoma risk - Science Daily, 6/26/19 - "While previous observational studies have been inconsistent about the association of primary open-angle glaucoma risk with long-term cholesterol and statin use, the results showed that use of statins for five years or longer, versus never using statins, is associated with a 21 percent lower chance of primary open-angle glaucoma. In addition, every 20 mg/dL increase in total serum cholesterol level is associated with a 7 percent increase in risk of primary open-angle glaucoma. These results suggest that elevated cholesterol levels may heighten glaucoma risk"
• Cholesterol medication could invite diabetes, study suggests - Science Daily, 6/25/19 - "statin users had more than double the risk of a diabetes diagnosis compared to those who didn't take the drugs. Those who took the cholesterol-lowering drugs for more than two years had more than three times the risk of diabete ... statin users were 6.5 percent more likely to have a troublingly high HbA1c value ... the results suggest that individuals taking statins should be followed closely to detect changes in glucose metabolism and should receive special guidance on diet and exercise for prevention"
• Statins May Cut Postconcussion Dementia Risk - Medscape, 6/3/19 - "statin use was associated with a 13% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7% – 19%; P < .001) reduced risk for dementia, compared with no statin use (relative risk, 0.87"
• Use of statin medications following diagnosis in relation to survival among women with ovarian cancer - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2019 May 7 - "Over a mean follow-up of 2.2 years, 796 (36%) women died from ovarian cancer. The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for ovarian cancer mortality comparing statin users to non-users was 0.74"
• Study explaining side effects of statins finds drug can have unexpected benefits - Science Daily, 3/19/19 - "The cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce the ability of migratory cells, such as cancer and immune cells, to travel ... statins reduced movement more than 10-fold compared to the control group ... This indicated that GPCR-governed cancer cell migration also can be reduced by statins"
• Taking statins for heart disease cuts risk in half, yet only 6 percent of patients taking as directed - Science Daily, 3/18/19 - "patients with optimal adherence -- who took their statins as prescribed at least 80 percent of the time -- reduced their risk of dying or having a heart attack or stroke by nearly 50 percent. Unfortunately, though, only 351 out of those 5,468 patients fell into the optimal adherence category -- which is about six percent ... 25 percent of patients never filled their statin prescription in the first place, and 25 percent didn't fill their second one"
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce brown adipose tissue - Science Daily, 12/21/18 - "brown adipose tissue helps to convert sugar and fat into heat. People with brown adipose tissue are better at regulating their body temperature in the winter, and are less likely to suffer from excess weight or diabetes ... 6 percent of those not taking the medication had brown adipose tissue, but this tissue type was present in only a little over 1 percent of those who were taking statins ... Although the study demonstrated that statins have a negative impact, Wolfrum warns against talking them down. "We also have to consider that statins are incredibly important as a way to prevent cardiovascular disease. They save millions of lives around the world, and they are prescribed for a very good reason," he says"
• Statin Use Raises Diabetes Risk 'Even in High-Risk Patients' - Medscape, 10/23/17 - "Over 10 years, statin use was linked to a 36% increased risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, falling to 27% after taking into account baseline risk factors and clinical criteria used to determine the need for statins ... As previously reported by Medscape Medical News, a study of more than 8700 Finnish men aged 45 to 73 years showed that over 6 years statins were linked to a 46% increased risk of type 2 diabetes — more than double prior estimates ... This was followed by recent data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, which indicated that, among almost 8400 women aged 76 to 82 years, the risk of new-onset diabetes ranged from 17% with the lowest statin doses to 51% with the highest doses"
• The use of statins alone, or in combination with pioglitazone and other drugs, for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and related cardiovascular risk. An Expert Panel Statement - Metabolism. 2017 Jun;71:17-3 - "The suggestion of this Expert Panel is that, pending forthcoming randomized clinical trials, physicians should consider using a PPARgamma agonist, such as pioglitazone, or, statin use in those with NAFLD/NASH at high CVD or HCC risk, alone and/or preferably in combination with each other or with ezetimibe, for the primary or secondary prevention of CVD, and the avoidance of cirrhosis, liver transplantation or HCC, bearing in mind that CVD is the main cause of death in NAFLD/NASH patients"
• Statins associated with improved heart structure and function - Science Daily, 5/26/17 - "Statins have other beneficial, non-cholesterol lowering, effects. They can improve the function of the blood vessels, reduce inflammation, and stabilise fatty plaques in the blood vessels. Studies in mice and small studies in humans have shown that statins also reduce the thickness of heart muscle but this needed to be confirmed in a larger study ... In terms of how statins might reduce the thickness and volume of the heart, Dr Aung said several studies have demonstrated that statins reduce oxidative stress and dampen the production of growth factors which stimulate cell growth. Statins also increase the production of nitric oxide by the cells lining the blood vessels, leading to vasodilatation, improved blood flow, lower blood pressure, and lower stress on the heart, which is less likely to become hypertrophied ... The findings raise the issue of extending statin prescriptions to anyone above the age of 40"
• Statins: No increase in muscle-related side effects in patients who are unaware they are taking the drug, analysis finds - Science Daily, 5/2/17 - "cases of muscle pain and weakness are unlikely to be directly caused by statins, but may instead be due to the so-called nocebo effect, where the expectation of side effects can make patients more likely to report them ... During the blinded phase of the study, the rate of muscle-related symptoms was similar whether patients received a statin or placebo (2.03% per year vs. 2% respectively). However, during the non-blinded phase of the study, muscle-related symptoms were 41% more common among people taking statins compared to those who weren't (1.26% vs 1.00% per year respectively) ... The randomised, blinded phase of the trial found no difference between the statin and placebo groups for erectile dysfunction (1.86% vs 2.14% per year). Sleep disturbance was lower in the statins group compared to placebo (1.00% vs 1.46%) and there was an increase in renal and urinary side effects in the statins group compared to placebo (1.87% vs 1.51%), both of which require further investigation"
• Cholesterol-fighting drugs lower risk of Alzheimer's disease - Science Daily, 12/13/16 - "The greatest drop in incidence of Alzheimer's disease -- 29 percent -- was among Hispanic men. Among white men, high users of statins had an 11-percent lower risk of incidence of the disease. A similar reduction in risk -- 12-percent -- was found among Hispanic women ... The risk of Alzheimer's disease was also lower for white women who were high users (15 percent lower than women who took statins less frequently)"
• Statin Use Significantly Improves Overall Survival in High-Grade Endometrial Cancer - Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2016 Sep 19 - "Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) ... Hyperlipidemic patients who used statins had improved OS compared with hyperlipidemic patients not using statins (hazard ratio, 0.42; 95% confidence interval, 0.20-0.87; P = 0.02). Statin use was also associated with improved PFS (hazard ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.23-0.95; P = 0.04) on multivariate analysis"
• Statin therapy prevents the onset of Parkinson disease in patients with diabetes - Ann Neurol. 2016 Jul 29 - "The PD incidence rate was lower in statin users than in nonusers of statins. The crude hazard ratio of PD incidence in statin users was 0.65 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.57-0.74) in females and 0.60 (95% CI = 0.51-0.69) in males compared with nonusers of statins. After Cox regression analysis, all statins except lovastatin exerted protective effects on PD incidence and had a significant dose-dependent trend"
• Impact of statin use on cancer recurrence and mortality in breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis - Int J Cancer. 2016 May 13 - "In a meta-analysis of 10 studies, statin use was associated with improved recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.53- 0.79, I2 = 44%). Furthermore, this RFS benefit appeared to be confined to use of lipophilic statins (HR 0.72; 95% CI 0.59- 0.89) as hydrophilic statin use was not associated with improvement in RFS (HR 0.80; 95% CI 0.44- 1.46). Statin users similarly showed improved overall survival in a meta-analysis with substantial heterogeneity (8 studies, HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.44-0.99, I2 = 89%). Statin users also had improved cancer-specific survival, although this relationship was measured with less precision (6 studies, HR 0.70"
  • Which Statin Is Right for My Patient? - Medscape, 8/28/07 - "Atorvastatin, lovastatin, and simvastatin are lipophilic, whereas pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and fluvastatin are more hydrophilic"
• Longer duration of statin therapy is associated with decreased carotid plaque vascularity by magnetic resonance imaging - Atherosclerosis. 2015 Dec 1;245:74-81 - "carotid plaque neovasculature (as assessed by Vp) ... shorter duration of statin therapy (P = 0.01), the presence of metabolic syndrome (P = 0.02), and higher body mass index (P = 0.01) and lipoprotein(a) (P = 0.01) were all significantly associated with higher baseline Vp values"
• Statins and Lower Cancer Mortality; Risk Cut by Up to a Half - Medscape, 6/10/15 - "statin use was associated with a 22% reduction in deaths from various cancer types in women and a 55% reduction in deaths from bone/connective tissue cancers. The study in men looked at statin use together with the antidiabetes medication metformin and found a 40% reduction in prostate cancer mortality, with the effect more pronounced in men with obesity/metabolic syndrome ... the researchers speculate that statins interfere with cell growth and metastasis by blocking cholesterol production, thereby affecting molecular pathways and the inflammatory response"
• Statins May Slow Prostate Cancer Progression: Study - WebMD, 5/7/15 - "Among 926 men undergoing hormone therapy for advanced prostate therapy, those taking statins saw significant benefits, researchers said. Their cancer remained stable for an average of 27.5 months before worsening, compared with an average of 17.4 months among men not taking statins ... statins keep testosterone from entering cancer cells"
• Statin Use and Risk of Depression - Medscape, 3/25/15 - "Use of any statin was shown to reduce the odds of depression by 8% compared to individuals not using statin medications (OR = 0.92, 95% CI, 0.89–0.96; p < 0.001). Simvastatin had a protective effect (OR = 0.93, 95% CI, 0.89–0.97; p = 0.001), whereas atorvastatin was associated with increased risk of depression (OR = 1.11, 95% CI, 1.01–1.22; p = 0.032). There was a stepwise decrease in odds ratio with increasing age (OR ≥ 40 years = 0.95, OR ≥ 50 years = 0.91, OR ≥ 60 years = 0.85, OR ≥ 70 years = 0.81)"
• Statin use and risk of primary liver cancer in the clinical practice research datalink - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2015 Feb 26;107(4) - "Statin use was associated with a statistically significantly reduced risk of liver cancer (ORadj = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.45 to 0.69), especially among current users (ORadj = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.42 to 0.66). The reduced risk was statistically significant in the presence (ORadj = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.17 to 0.57) and absence of liver disease (ORadj = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.52 to 0.81) and in the presence (ORadj = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.21 to 0.42) and absence of diabetes (ORadj = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.51 to 0.85)"
• Can Statins Help Improve Prostate Cancer Survival? - WebMD, 3/10/15 - "Taking a statin alongside androgen deprivation therapy slowed the progress of prostate cancer by about 10 months ... Patients on a statin have a significantly longer time to progression"
• Statins reverse learning disabilities caused by genetic disorder - Science Daily, 11/10/14 - "Here's how it works: statin drugs lower cholesterol by blocking the synthesis of certain fat molecules that Ras requires to function. The resulting drop in Ras activity allows brain cells to communicate properly, allowing normal learning to take place ... We were amazed to see that statin treatment restored the adult animals' cognitive functions to normal ... UCLA's approach could help the estimated 35 million Americans who struggle with learning disabilities"
• Coenzyme Q10 Supplementation Decreases Statin-Related Mild-to-Moderate Muscle Symptoms: A Randomized Clinical Study - Med Sci Monit. 2014 Nov 6;20:2183-2188 - "The present results show that coenzyme Q10 supplementation (50 mg twice daily) effectively reduced statin-related mild-to-moderate muscular symptoms, causing lower interference of statin-related muscular symptoms with daily activities" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• Statins May Help Prevent Diabetes-Related Nerve Damage, Study Finds - WebMD, 9/9/14 - "The researchers compared the outcomes of more than 15,500 patients who used statins to more than 47,000 patients who were not taking the drugs ... After a median follow-up of 2.7 years, the study showed that people who used statins were 34 percent less likely to be diagnosed with diabetes-related nerve damage and 40 percent less likely to develop diabetes-related damage to the retina. These patients also had a 12 percent lower risk of gangrene than those who did not take statins"
• Statin Use After Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis and Survival: A Population-Based Cohort Study - J Clin Oncol. 2014 Aug 4 - "Overall, statin use after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with reduced colorectal cancer-specific mortality (fully adjusted HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.84). A dose-response association was apparent; for example, a more marked reduction was apparent in colorectal cancer patients using statins for more than 1 year (adjusted HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.79). A reduction in all-cause mortality was also apparent in statin users after colorectal cancer diagnosis (fully adjusted HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.84)"
• Elevation of HDL-C in Response to Statin Treatment is Involved in the Regression of Carotid Atherosclerosis - J Atheroscler Thromb. 2014 Jun 13 - "The administration of statins for 3 years to subjects with type 2 diabetes resulted in a significant regression of the carotid IMT. An elevation of the plasma HDL-C with statin treatment was closely related to a regression of atherosclerosis"
• Statins and Prostate Cancer: Novel, Encouraging Study - Medscape, 5/13/14 -"radical prostatectomy (RP) ... not all statins are equal; the protective effect was limited to the lipophilic statins (e.g., atorvastatin, lovastatin, and simvastatin) ... researchers retrospectively compared biochemical recurrence in men who started statins after surgery with recurrence in men who were never users ... In all, only 16% post-RP statin users (65/400) had biochemical recurrence, compared with 45% of nonusers (337/746)"
• As Statins Boost Erectile Function, Adherence May Rise Too - Medscape, 3/29/14 - "In men who took statins, erectile-function scores increased by 3.4 points, from 14.0 to 17.4 points—a 24.3% increase. The increase in erectile-function score was about one-third to one-half of that reported with phosphodiesterase inhibitors, such as sildenafil (Viagra, Pfizer), tadalafil (Cialis, Lilly), or vardenafil (Levitra, Bayer/GlaxoSmithKline), and larger than the effect of lifestyle modification or testosterone" - [Science Daily]
• Only small number of symptomatic side effects reported in those taking statins are actually attributable to statins, study finds - Science Daily, 3/13/14 - "The study, a meta-analysis involving more than 80,000 patients and reported today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, was performed without funding from any agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors ... Overall, the study found serious adverse effects in 14.6% of patients receiving statins and 14.9% given placebo in the primary prevention trials, and in 9.9% of those on statins and 11.2% on placebo in the secondary prevention trials. Similarly, comparable numbers of patients withdrew from the trials because of symptomatic adverse events (around 12-15%) ... Most people in the general population, if you repeatedly ask them a detailed questionnaire, will not feel perfectly well in every way on every day. Why should they suddenly feel well when taking a tablet after being warned of possible adverse effects?"
• Statin use reduces delirium in critically ill patients - Science Daily, 1/17/14 - "administration of statins the previous evening was associated with a significantly lower risk of delirium and a concomitant reduction in serum C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation, the following day"
• Statin Therapy, Fitness, and Mortality Risk in Middle-Aged Hypertensive Male Veterans - Am J Hypertens. 2014 Jan 16 - "Peak exercise capacity was assessed in 10,202 hypertensive male subjects (mean age = 60.4±10.6 years) in 2 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. We established 4 fitness categories based on peak metabolic equivalents (METs) achieved and 8 categories based on fitness status and statin therapy ... follow-up period (median = 10.2 years) ... Mortality risk was 34% lower (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.59-0.74; P < 0.001) among individuals treated with statins compared with those not on statins. The fitness-related mortality risk association was inverse and graded regardless of statin therapy status. Risk reduction associated with exercise capacity of 5.1-8.4 METs was similar to that observed with statin therapy. However, those achieving ≥8.5 METs had 52% lower risk (HR = 0.48; 95% CI = 0.37-0.63) when compared with the least-fit subjects (≤5 METs) on statin therapy"
• Statins and Aspirin for Chemoprevention in Barrett's Esophagus: Results of a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis - "Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2013 Dec 31 - "aspirin chemoprevention was both more effective and cost less than endoscopic surveillance alone. Combination therapy using both aspirin and statin is expensive but could be cost-effective in patients at higher risk of progression to EAC"
• Effect of statin treatment on coronary plaque progression - A serial coronary CT angiography study - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Dec;231(2):198-204 - "The study included 100 consecutive patients who underwent serial Coronary CTA (mean follow up: 406 ± 92 days) for evaluation of CAD without known prior heart disease or revascularization. We performed volumetric assessment of low attenuation plaque (LAP < 30 Hounsfield units), non-calcified (NCP) and calcified plaque volumes at baseline and follow up scans for vessels >2 mm in diameter ... Statin therapy resulted in significantly lower progression of LAP and NCP plaques compared to non-statin users"
• Statins and the risks of stroke recurrence and death after ischemic stroke: The Fukuoka Stroke Registry - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Dec;231(2):211-5 - "CVEs: stroke recurrence or transient ischemic attack) and all-cause mortality in a cohort of Japanese patients with first-ever ischemic stroke ... The 2822 eligible patients registered in the Fukuoka Stroke Registry with first-ever acute ischemic stroke from June 2007 to February 2011 were classified into statin users (n = 993) and non-users (n = 1829) at discharge, and followed up until March 2012 ... The cumulative risks of CVE and death after 4 years were significantly lower in statin users than in non-users (13.8% versus 19.5%, P = 0.005 for CVE; 11.8% versus 21.7%, P < 0.001 for death). After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, statin treatment significantly reduced the risks of CVE (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.92; P = 0.011) and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50 to 0.89; P = 0.006)"
• Use of Statins and the Risk of Death in Patients With Prostate Cancer - J Clin Oncol. 2013 Nov 4 - "Postdiagnostic use of statins was associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer mortality (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.88) and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95). These decreased risks of prostate cancer mortality and all-cause mortality were more pronounced in patients who also used statins before diagnosis (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.41 to 0.74; and HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81, respectively), with weaker effects in patients who initiated the treatment only after diagnosis (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.96; and HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.82 to 1.01, respectively)"
• Lipid-Lowering Drugs Associated With Slower Motor Decline in the Elderly Adults - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2013 Oct 4 - "We investigated the relationship between lipid-lowering drugs (LLDs) use and decline in walking speed (WS) in older adults ... 4,009 community-dwelling men and women, aged ≥65 years at baseline, are drawn from the Dijon (France) center of the Three-City study ... WS decline was 25% slower in LLDs users ... Fast WS declined less in those on LLDs, suggesting that the effect of LLDs, statins in particular, extend beyond that on cardiovascular disease in the elderly persons"
• Statins and Cognition: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Short- and Long-term Cognitive Effects - Mayo Clin Proc. 2013 Sep 27 - "A systematic search was performed of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register from their inception to April 25, 2013 ... Long-term cognition studies included 23,443 patients with a mean exposure duration of 3 to 24.9 years. Three studies found no association between statin use and incident dementia, and 5 found a favorable effect. Pooled results revealed a 29% reduction in incident dementia in statin-treated patients"
• High-Dose Statins Reduce Gum Inflammation in Heart Disease Patients - Science Daily, 10/2/13 - "Periodontitis and atherosclerosis are both primarily driven by inflammation. These inflammatory conditions tend to co-exist within individuals and their biologies may be intertwined ... patients with heart disease or a high heart disease risk were assigned to take either an 80 mg statin or a 10 mg statin daily for 12 weeks ... The 59 patients included in the final analysis showed a significant reduction in gum inflammation after as few as four weeks of treatment with the high-dose statin. Interestingly, the improvement in gum inflammation tracked closely with improvement in atherosclerotic disease"
• Statin May Prevent Dementia, Memory Loss With Longer Use, Don't Pose Short-Term Cognition Problems - Science Daily, 10/1/13 - "statins do not affect short-term memory or cognition. In contrast, they say that when the drugs are taken for more than one year, the risk of dementia is reduced by 29 percent ... We looked at high-quality, randomized controlled trials and prospective studies that included more than 23,000 men and women with no prior history of cognitive problems. The participants in those studies were followed for up to 25 years ... Vascular dementia is caused by blockages in small blood vessels in the brain that prevent blood flow to certain areas. Medications such as statins that reduce plaque and inflammation in coronary arteries may also be having the same effect on blood vessels in the brain"
• Long-term use of statins reduces the risk of hospitalization for dementia - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Oct;230(2):171-6 - "A population-based, nested case-control study was carried out by including the cohort of 152,729 patients from Lombardy (Italy) aged 40 years or older who were newly treated with statins between 2003 and 2004. Cases were the 1380 patients who experienced hospitalization for dementia disease from initial prescription until 2010 ... Compared with patients who had very short statins coverage (less than 6 months), those on 7-24, 25-48, and >48 months of coverage respectively had risk reductions of 15% (OR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.74 to 0.98), 28% (OR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.85), and 25% (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.94). Simvastatin and atorvastatin were both associated with a reduced risk of dementia, while no similar evidence was observed for fluvastatin and pravastatin"
• High Dose Atorvastatin Reduces Periodontal Inflammation: A Novel Pleiotropic Effect of Statins - J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013 Sep 23 - "Eighty-three adults with risk factors or with established atherosclerosis, who were not taking high-dose statins, were randomized to atorvastatin 80 mg vs. 10mg in a multicenter, double-blind trial to evaluate the impact of atorvastatin on arterial inflammation ... After 12 weeks, there was a significant reduction in periodontal inflammation in patients randomized to atorvastatin 80 vs. 10 mg (ΔTBR mean [95 CI], 80mg vs. 10mg group = -0.43 [-0.83, -0.02], p=0.04). Between-group differences were greater in patients with higher periodontal inflammation at baseline (-0.74 [-1.29, -0.19], p=0.01) and in patients with severe bone loss at baseline (-0.61 [-1.16, -0.054], p=0.03). Furthermore, the changes in periodontal inflammation correlated with changes in carotid inflammation"
• Statins Tied to Cataract Risk - NYTimes.com, 9/25/13 - "scientists retrospectively examined 13,626 statin users and 32,623 nonusers, ages 30 to 85, who were part of a military health care system. The average length of statin use was about two years ... compared with nonusers, those who took statins had a 9 to 27 percent increased risk for cataracts"
• Statins and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults with Normal Cognition or Mild Cognitive Impairment - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013 Sep 3 - "Research volunteers with normal cognition at baseline evaluated an average 4.1 times over 3.4 years (1,244 statin users, 2,363 nonusers) and with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at baseline evaluated an average 3.9 times over 2.8 years (763 users, 917 nonusers) ... Cognitive performance was assessed according to 10 neuropsychological indices and the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SOB) ... Of participants with normal cognition at baseline, statin users performed significantly better across all visits in attention (Trails A) and had significantly slower annual worsening in CDR-SOB scores (P = .006) and slower worsening in Mini-Mental State Examination scores than nonusers (which was not significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons, P = .05). For participants with MCI, statin users performed significantly better across all visits on attention measures (Trail-Making Test Part A), verbal skills (Category Fluency), and executive functioning (Trail-Making Test Part B, Digit Symbol, and Digits Backward), but there were no differences in cognitive decline between users and nonusers"
• Statins reduce cardiovascular events in coronary artery disease patients with very low LDL cholesterol levels - Science Daily, 8/31/13 - "Major Cardiovascular Events (MACE) ... used the Ibaraki Cardiovascular Assessment Study (ICAS), a registry of 2,238 patients from 12 hospitals in the Ibaraki region of Japan ... Based on serum LDL-C levels at initial presentation participants were classified into three groups: very low (<70 mg/dl, n=214); low (71-100 mg/dl, n=669); and high (>101 mg/dl, n= 1,355) ... followed up for a maximum of 3 years ... three years of statin treatment produced significant reductions in the incidence of MACE in all three groups"
• High dose statins prevents dementia, study suggests - Science Daily, 8/31/13 - "the current study examined whether statin use was associated with new diagnoses of dementia. The researchers used a random sample of 1 million patients covered by Taiwan's National Health Insurance ... The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for dementia were significantly inversely associated with increased daily or total equivalent statin dosage. The HRs for the three tertiles of mean equivalent daily dosage (lowest to highest) were 0.622, 0.697 and 0.419 vs control ... Patients who received the highest total equivalent doses of statins had a 3-fold decrease in the risk of developing dementia ... Almost all the statins (except lovastatin) decreased the risk for new onset dementia when taken at higher daily doses. A high mean daily dosage of lovastatin was positively associated with the development of dementia, possibly because lovastatin is a lipophilic statin while the anti-inflammatory cholesterol lowering effect of lovastatin is not comparable to that of atorvastatin and simvastatin" - Note: The brand names are Mevacor (lovastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium), Zocor (simvastatin), etc.
• Statins Prevent Cataracts, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 8/31/13 - "Statins lower the rate of cataract by 20 percent ... The risk of cataract was reduced by 50 percent when treatment was initiated in younger individuals (in their 40s) and the duration of therapy was longer (e.g. up to 14 years) ... The meta-analysis included 2,399,200 persons and 25,618 cataracts. The average duration of treatment was 54 months and average age was 61"
• Statins may slow human aging by protecting against telomere shortening: A feature of senescent cells - Science Daily, 8/29/13 - "statins may reduce the rate at which telomeres shorten, a key factor in the natural aging process ... worked with two groups of subjects. The first group was under chronic statin therapy, and the second group (control), did not use statins. When researchers measured telomerase activity in both groups, those undergoing statin treatment had higher telomerase activity in their white blood cells, which was associated with lower telomeres shortening along with aging as compared to the control group. This strongly highlights the role of telomerase activation in preventing the excessive accumulation of short telomeres"
• Statin Use May Reduce Parkinson's Risk, Study Says - WebMD, 7/24/13 - "Analyzing nearly 44,000 patients, scientists found that those who discontinued taking fat-soluble statins such as simvastatin (Zocor) or atorvastatin (Lipitor) were about 58 percent more likely to develop Parkinson's than those who kept taking the drugs ... Fat-soluble statins are believed to cross the blood-brain barrier, unlike water-soluble statins such as rosuvastatin (Crestor) and pravastatin (Pravachol). The drugs may decrease inflammation and even modify dopamine pathways in the brain, which are linked to Parkinson's ... The new study, which took place from 2001 to 2008 on statin patients free of Parkinson's disease, also showed that participants taking water-soluble statins developed Parkinson's at about twice the rate as those taking fat-soluble statins"
• Do Statins Protect Against Glaucoma? - Medscape, 5/13/13 - "open-angle glaucoma (OAG) ... used a nationwide healthcare claims database containing detailed medical records for more than 500,000 patients with hyperlipidemia to determine whether an association exists between statin use and the development of OAG ... the risk for OAG decreased 0.3% (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.997; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.994-0.999) for every additional month of statin use. Individuals with hyperlipidemia who took statins continuously for 2 years had an 8% (adjusted HR, 0.922; 95% CI, 0.870-0.976) lower OAG risk compared with those who received no statin therapy"
• Cholesterol Drugs Might Boost Kidney Cancer Survival - WebMD, 5/7/13 - "Over three years, 10 percent of the patients who took statins died of their cancer, compared with 17 percent of those who did not take this type of drug ... Last year in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Danish researchers studied 13 different cancers and found that in all types, the use of statins was associated with longer cancer specific survival"
• Taking cholesterol-lowering drugs may also reduce the risk of dying from prostate cancer - Science Daily, 5/2/13 - "After a mean follow-up of almost eight years, the researchers found that the risk of death from prostate cancer among statin users was 1 percent as compared to 5 percent for nonusers"
• Statins and Cancer Mortality: Some Comfort - Medscape, 2/25/13 - "They found that, overall, no matter what dose of statin patients were taking, statins reduced cancer mortality by about 15%"
• Statins and Colorectal Cancer - Medscape, 2/18/13 - "In a retrospective analysis conducted in more than 2500 veterans with a history of colonoscopic polypectomy for adenomas, Siddiqui et al[87] showed a 49% reduction in the incidence of recurrent adenomas, and a 29% reduction in the incidence of advanced adenomas, associated with continuous statin use over 3 to 5 years. In a subsequent analysis of 231 individuals from the same population,[88] significantly fewer adenomas, of smaller size, were observed at follow-up colonoscopy in individuals who had achieved 30% or more reduction in LDL cholesterol level, compared with those who had not. This suggests that lipid lowering, rather than statin use per se, may be partly responsible for the effect of statins on adenoma development and progression.[88] An independent case-control study of 197 patients, also from a veterans population, found no association between statin use and adenoma recurrence over a median of 3.4 years.[89] Furthermore, a secondary analysis of data from 3 large colorectal adenoma chemoprevention trials, with a combined total of 2915 subjects, failed to show any association between statin use and the recurrence of any adenomas, multiple adenomas, or advanced adenomas.[90] The prevalence of self-reported statin use was, however, low (8.1%) across the 3 chemoprevention trials, limiting power for the post hoc analysis.[90] Statin users comprised a much larger proportion (37%) of participants in the Adenoma Prevention With Celecoxib (APC) trial.[91] However, in a secondary analysis of APC trial data, Bertagnolli et al[91] found no evidence to support a chemopreventive effect of statin use over 5 years of follow-up. On the contrary, statin use of more than 3 years was associated with a 39% increased risk of adenoma recurrence. Although these data are derived from an RCT, statin use was self-selected, and the patient population comprised only high-risk patients with a history of multiple or large adenomas, limiting the generalizability of the results. Nonetheless, this analysis represents a large prospective study of statin use and incident adenomas. Furthermore, assessment of the association between statin use and study end points was a planned secondary analysis"
• Statins and colorectal cancer risk: a longitudinal study - Cancer Causes Control. 2013 Jan 30 - "After multivariable adjustment, initiators of statins had a lower incidence rate of CRC as compared to initiators of glaucoma drugs [hazard ratio (HR) 0.79; 95 % CI 0.69-0.90]. In sex-stratified analyses we observed a protective effect in men (HR 0.77; 95 % CI 0.67-0.88) but not in women (HR 0.96; 95 % CI 0.82-1.1)"
• Statin use and reduced cancer-related mortality - N Engl J Med. 2012 Nov 8 - "Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for statin users, as compared with patients who had never used statins, were 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 0.87) for death from any cause and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.82 to 0.87) for death from cancer"
• Statins may reduce risk of esophageal cancer - Science Daily, 10/22/12 - "Only 1 in 5 patients with this cancer will still be alive five years after diagnosis ... The Mayo study combined data from 13 studies that included over 1.1 million patients, of which 9,285 had esophageal cancer. The analysis found statins lowered cancer risk by nearly one-third; the longer a patient was on statins, the greater the protective effect ... When researchers looked specifically at Barrett's esophagus, patients taking a statin and aspirin reduced their risk of esophageal cancer by 72 percent"
• Statin Use As a Moderator of Metformin Effect on Risk for Prostate Cancer Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients - Diabetes Care. 2012 Mar 28 - "Mean follow-up was ~5 years, and 7.5% had a PCa diagnosis. Statin use modified the effect of metformin on PCa incidence (P < 0.0001). Metformin was associated with a significantly reduced PCa incidence among patients on statins (HR 0.69 [95% CI 0.50-0.92]; 17 cases/533 metformin users vs. 135 cases/2,404 sulfonylureas users) and an increased PCa incidence among patients not on statins (HR 2.15 [1.83-2.52]; 22 cases/175 metformin users vs. 186 cases/1,930 sulfonylureas users). The HR of PCa incidence for those taking metformin and statins versus those taking neither medication was 0.32"
• Low Levels of LDL Cholesterol Predate Cancer Cases - Medscape, 3/25/12 - "there is nothing here to suggest that statins would be unsafe"
• Statin Risks Outweighed by Statin Benefits - USA Today, 3/1/12 - "Clinical trials show that all of these cholesterol-lowering drugs cut the risk of heart disease by 25% to 30% ... analyses of controlled trials show that those who cross the threshold into diabetes had exactly the same benefits of the statin ... As for the memory loss and confusion, Nissen says it is "rare and completely reversible.""
• New Warnings on Cholesterol-Lowering Statins - WebMD, 2/28/12 - "Memory loss, confusion, high blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes are possible side effects of the popular cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins ... Brand name and generic versions of statin drugs must carry these warnings on their labels"
• 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 green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• 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 at Amazon.com.
• 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 at Amazon.com.
• 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 OffshoreRx1.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"
• 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 ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
• 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"
• 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 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"
• 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"
• 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"
• 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"
• 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, 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"
• 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 ubiquinol at Amazon.com.
• 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.""
• 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"
• 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"
• 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 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"
• 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%"
• 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"
• 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"
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• 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)"
• 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"
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• 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 red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• 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