Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 4/10/13.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Reducing salt and increasing potassium will have major global health benefits - Science Daily, 4/4/13 - "increased potassium intake reduces blood pressure in adults, with no adverse effects on blood lipids, hormone levels or kidney function. Higher potassium intake was linked with a 24% lower risk of stroke in adults and may also have a beneficial effect on blood pressure in children, but more data is needed" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.

Assessing insulin resistance can inform about breast cancer risk - Science Daily, 4/4/13 - "When tissues become resistant to the action of insulin -- which occurs often in obese people -- a balancing mechanism further increases insulin production leading to a chronic hyperinsulinemia. Such high insulin levels can be detrimental to the body because insulin not only regulates glucose metabolism but has more functions such as stimulating cell proliferation and survival. Therefore the continuous activation of insulin pathways can contribute to cancer development by fuelling cancer cell growth. Consistently, by analyzing a cohort of 410 patients and 565 healthy women, the researchers found that 49% of patients were insulin resistant compared with 34% of controls indicating that insulin resistance can indeed increase the risk of developing breast cancer"

Low Testosterone Linked to Later Arthritis in Study - WebMD, 4/3/13 - "Swedish researchers analyzed blood samples collected from 104 men who were later diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and 174 men of the same age who did not develop the disease. The average time between collection of the blood sample and a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis was just less than 13 years ... men with lower testosterone levels were more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis. They did not, however, prove a cause-and-effect link between the two ... These men also had significantly higher levels of follicle stimulating hormone -- a chemical involved in sexual maturity and reproduction -- before they were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis"

Decreased melatonin secretion associated with higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes - Science Daily, 4/2/13 - "The analysis consisted of a case-control study nested within the Nurses' Health Study cohort ... participants in the lowest category of urinary ratio of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin to creatinine had a 2.2 times higher odds of developing type 2 diabetes compared to participants in the highest category" - [Abstract] - See melatonin at Amazon.com.

Many Older Veterans Suffer PTSD in Silence - Medscape, 4/2/13 - "Well more than half (67%) of respondents reported having a lifetime emotional health problem; such problems included depression, attention-deficit disorder, anger issues, mania, anxiety, and substance abuse" - Note: A lot of  problems with that study though.  It wasn't compared to non-vets plus only 72 of 400 responded and they may have been different plus it was at an Armed Forces Retirement Home and they may also have been different.

Mental illness linked to heavy cannabis use - Science Daily, 4/2/13 - "People with mental illnesses are more than seven times more likely to use cannabis weekly compared to people without a mental illness ... researchers analyzed data from face-to-face interviews with over 43,000 respondents over the age of 18 from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions"

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

A maternal high-protein diet predisposes female offspring to increased fat mass in adulthood whereas a prebiotic fibre diet decreases fat mass in rats - Br J Nutr. 2013 Apr 8:1-10 - "virgin Wistar dams were fed either a control (C), high-protein (40 %, w/w; HP) or high-prebiotic fibre (21.6 %, w/w; HF) diet throughout pregnancy and lactation. Pups consumed the C diet from 3 to 14.5 weeks of age, and then switched to a high-fat/sucrose diet for 8 weeks ... The maternal HP and HF diets had lasting effects on body fat and hepatic TAG accumulation in the offspring, particularly in females. Whereas the HP diet predisposes to an obese phenotype, the maternal HF diet appears to reduce the susceptibility to obesity following a high-energy diet challenge in adulthood"

Meta-analyses of colorectal cancer risk factors - Cancer Causes Control. 2013 Apr 6 - "the published evidence and explored associations between risk factors and CRC incidence ... Significant risk factors include inflammatory bowel disease (RR = 2.93, 95 % CI 1.79-4.81); CRC history in first-degree relative (RR = 1.80, 95 % CI 1.61-2.02); body mass index (BMI) to overall population (RR = 1.10 per 8 kg/m2 increase, 95 % CI 1.08-1.12); physical activity (RR = 0.88, 95 % CI 0.86-0.91 for 2 standard deviations increased physical activity score); cigarette smoking (RR = 1.06, 95 % CI 1.03-1.08 for 5 pack-years); and consumption of red meat (RR = 1.13, 95 % CI 1.09-1.16 for 5 servings/week), fruit (RR = 0.85, 95 % CI 0.75-0.96 for 3 servings/day), and vegetables (RR = 0.86, 95 % CI 0.78-0.94 for 5 servings/day)"

Night Shift Work and Levels of 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin and Cortisol in Men - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Apr 5 - "We investigated whether male nightshift workers demonstrated changes in levels of melatonin and cortisol, potential biomarkers of cancer risk ... Nightshift workers had significantly lower 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels during daytime sleep, nighttime work, and nighttime sleep on off-nights (57%, 62% and 40% lower, respectively), relative to the dayshift workers during nighttime sleep (p<0.0001); urinary cortisol in nightshift workers was 16% higher during daytime sleep and 13% lower during nighttime sleep on off-nights (p<0.05). Morning serum cortisol post-work and post-sleep in nightshift workers were 24% and 43% lower, respectively, than post-sleep levels among dayshift workers (p<0.0001). Within-subject comparisons among the nightshift workers revealed significantly lower melatonin levels and significantly higher urinary cortisol levels during daytime sleep and nighttime work, relative to nighttime sleep (p<0.01); morning serum cortisol levels post-work were lower than those post-sleep ... Shiftwork could be an important risk factor for many types of cancer"

Effect of high doses of vitamin D on arterial properties, adiponectin, leptin and glucose homeostasis in type 2 diabetic patients - Clin Nutr. 2013 Feb 27 - "The present study was designed to evaluate long term impact of high doses of vitamin D on arterial properties, glucose homeostasis, adiponectin and leptin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus ... Group 1 received oral daily supplementation with vitamin D at a dose of 1000 U/day for 12 months. Group 2 received matching placebo capsules ... Central aortic augmentation index (AI) was evaluated using SphygmoCor ... After 12 months, AI decreased significantly during the treatment period in patients received vitamin D (p < 0.0001) and did not change in placebo group. Glucose homeostasis parameters, leptin as well as leptin adiponectin ratio did not change in both groups. 25 OH Vit D level significantly increased (p = 0.022) and circulating adiponectin marginally increased (p = 0.065) during 12 month treatment period in active treatment and did not change in placebo group" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Non-linear association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and the incidence of Type 2 diabetes: a community-based nested case-control study - Diabet Med. 2013 Mar 18 - "Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were measured for 761 participants (aged 20-83 years) in the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study ... Odds ratios for Type 2 diabetes were obtained from conditional logistic regression models for tertiles of serum 25(OH)D concentrations [tertile-1: 2.82-11.02 (reference), tertile-2: 11.03-21.80, and tertile-3: ≥ 21.82 ng/ml] ... Unadjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of diabetes were 0.73 (0.74-1.13), 0.54 (0.34-0.85) for the second and third tertiles, respectively. Multivariate adjusted odds ratios were 0.47 (0.25-0.90) and 0.43 (0.23-0.82), respectively. Below the cutoff of ~ 10 ng/ml the risk of newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes increased dramatically" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of Vitamin D Supplementation in Pregnancy in a Population with Endemic Vitamin D Deficiency - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Apr 4 - "Vitamin D (vD) deficiency in pregnancy is a global health problem and the amount of vD supplementation to prevent vD deficiency is controversial.  Objective: Determine effectiveness and safety of prenatal 2000 IU and 4000 IU/day compared with 400 IU/day vD3 supplementation in a RCT in population where vD deficiency is endemic ... Arab women were randomized at 12-16 weeks of gestation to 400, 2000 and 4000 IU/day vD3 which were continued to delivery ... Vitamin D supplementation of 2000 and 4000 IU/day appeared safe in pregnancy and 4000 IU/day was most effective in optimizing serum 25(OH)D concentrations in mothers and their infants" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Dietary patterns and risk of dementia in an elderly Japanese population: the Hisayama Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Apr 3 - "dietary pattern 1 was correlated with high intakes of soybeans and soybean products, vegetables, algae, and milk and dairy products and a low intake of rice ... vascular dementia (VaD) ... AD, and VaD were reduced by 0.66 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.95), 0.65 (95% CI: 0.40, 1.06), and 0.45 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.91), respectively, in subjects in the highest quartile of score for dietary pattern 1 compared with subjects in the lowest quartile"

Dietary Fat, Fatty Acids, and Risk of Prostate Cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Apr;22(4):697-707 - "NIH-American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Diet and Health Study. Diet was assessed at baseline with self-administered food-frequency questionnaires ... Total fat and mono- and polyunsaturated fat intakes were not associated with incidence of prostate cancer. Saturated fat intake was related to increased risk of advanced prostate cancer (HRQuintile 5 vs. Qunitile 1 (Q1 vs. Q5), 1.21; 95% CI, 1.00-1.46; Ptrend = 0.03) and fatal prostate cancer (HRQ5 vs. Q1, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.01-2.15; Ptrend = 0.04). α-Linolenic acid (ALA) intake was related to increased risk of advanced prostate cancer (HRQ5 vs. Q1, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.04-1.31; Ptrend = 0.01). Eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) intake was related to decreased risk of fatal prostate cancer (HRQ5 vs. Q1, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.64-1.04; Ptrend = 0.02)" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Statins):

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:

• 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.

Other News:

• 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" - See atorvastatin at OffshoreRx1.com.
• Statins May Lower Stroke Risk - Science Daily, 4/15/09 - "strokes were 18% less likely among patients taking statins than among those who didn't get statins ... For every drop of 39 mg/dL in LDL "bad" cholesterol, stroke risk dropped by 21%"
• Statin study: Lower cholesterol, diminished joy of sex linked - USA Today, 3/5/09 - "In the study, sexual pleasure sank along with LDL levels ... Some studies have found that statins improve sexual function, probably because the pills can improve blood flow to the genital area, Golomb says. But she says the drugs also may reduce Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that helps cells convert oxygen, blood and glucose into energy. "Orgasm is a high-energy activity," so losing the nutrient could weaken sexual pleasure, she says" - See 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"
• Can Statins Reduce Risk of Memory Loss? - WebMD, 7/28/08
• Statins Have Unexpected Effect On Pool Of Powerful Brain Cells - Science Daily, 7/3/08
• Statins Are "Remarkably Safe," Says New Review - Medscape, 6/10/08 - "A new review of the safety of statins has concluded that these drugs are well tolerated, with their main adverse effects — myopathy and rhabdomyolysis — occurring very rarely at standard doses"
• Low Cholesterol Leads To Lower PSA, Lower Prostate Cancer Risk, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 5/15/08 - "PSA levels were reduced after starting statin medications and that this decline was proportional to the decline in LDL cholesterol"
• Statins May Reduce Risk for Lung Cancer - Medscape, 5/8/08 - "Statin use for more than 6 months was associated with a reduced risk for lung cancer of 55%"
• Reduction in Blood Pressure With Statins: Results From the UCSD Statin Study, a Randomized Trial - Arch Intern Med. 2008 Apr 14;168(7):721-7 - "Statins modestly but significantly reduced BP relative to placebo,by 2.2 mm Hg for SBP (P = .02) and 2.4mm Hg for DBP"
• Statins Cause Apoptosis of Esophageal Cancer Cells - Medscape, 4/21/08
• Statins Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/11/08 - "We found that statins lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and that the effect extends to patients with pre-hypertension, with normal blood pressure, and persons not on blood-pressure lowering medications"
• Statins May Reduce Risk of Kidney Cancer - Medscape, 2/26/08 - "Treatment with a statin was associated with a 48% reduced risk of renal cell carcinoma"
• Statins, NSAIDs vs. Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 2/18/08 - "Men with prostate cancer who take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs or anti-inflammatory drugs live longer than those who don't take the drugs ... men who reported ever taking statins were 41% to 65% less likely to die during the course of the study than men who didn't. Men who took NSAIDs were 53% to 61% less likely to die than those who didn't"
• Why Patients Stop Taking Statins and What Can Be Done About It - Medscape, 2/14/08 - "Another reason why patients might stop taking lipid-lowering therapy may be sleep disturbance, which has been associated with statins" - That's something I didn't know.  If you are taking statins, you might want to take them in the morning instead of the evening.
• Statins might reduce risk of renal cell carcinoma in humans: case-control study of 500,000 veterans - Urology. 2008 Jan;71(1):118-22 - "Statin use was significantly associated with a risk reduction of renal cell carcinoma of 48% (adjusted odds ratio 0.52"
• Great Drug, but Does It Prolong Life? - New York Times, 1/28/08 - "High-risk groups have a lot to gain ... But patients at low risk benefit very little if at all. We end up overtreating a lot of patients ... This month, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published a report combining data from several studies of people 65 and older who had a prior heart attack or established heart disease. This “meta-analysis” showed that 18.7 percent of the placebo users died during the studies, compared with 15.6 percent of the statin users ... This translates into a 22 percent lower mortality risk for high-risk patients over 65"
• The Association Between Statins and Cancer Incidence in a Veterans Population - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Jan 8 - "After multivariable adjustment, a statistically significantly decreased risk of all cancers was also associated with increasing statin use"
• Statins for All Adults with Diabetes? - WebMD, 1/10/08 - "One-third fewer people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes would suffer heart attacks or strokes if they took cholesterol-lowering statin drugs"
• Statin Drugs May Cut Cancer Risk - WebMD, 1/8/08 - "The veterans were followed for five years, on average. During that time, 9% of those taking statins were diagnosed with cancer, compared with 13% of those not taking statins, VA records show"
• Elderly CHD Patients and Statins - Medscape, 1/3/08 - "the use of statins for secondary prevention in elderly patients with documented CHD reduced all-cause mortality 22% and reduced CHD mortality 30%. Nonfatal myocardial infarction was reduced 26%, the need for revascularization 30%, and stroke 25%"
• Statin Use Tied to Fewer Relapses in Prostate Cancer - oncologystat.com, 11/26/07 - "Men who happened to be on statins when given radiotherapy for prostate cancer were significantly more likely to be disease free 10 years later"
• CORONA: Little Clinical Benefit Seen in First Major Statin Trial in HF - Medscape, 11/6/07 - "Over a median follow-up of 33 months, there were no significant differences in the primary end point or in all-cause mortality, the rate of coronary events (which included sudden death, fatal or nonfatal MI, percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI] or coronary arterial bypass graft [CABG], resuscitated cardiac arrest, and hospitalization for unstable angina), effects on NYHA class, or the rate of newly diagnosed diabetes ... Despite the lack of difference in the primary end point, there were significant reductions in levels of CRP; however, they were not decreased to what would be considered a low level ... This does bring into question whether higher doses of rosuvastatin could have additional clinical benefit" - Note:  Statins do little to increase HDL which some studies imply may be more important.  Also, statins have been shown to decrease co-enzyme Q10.  I would have liked to see the results if they had added niacin to increase HDL and co-enzyme Q10.
• Statins May Fight Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 10/29/07 - "Overall, 76% of men who took statins were alive and without cancer 10 years after treatment vs. 66% of those who didn’t"
• Can Cholesterol-lowering Medicine Make Radiation More Effective At Curing Prostate Cancer? - Science Daily, 10/29/07 - "Patients with prostate cancer who receive high-dose radiation treatment and also take statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol have a 10 percent higher chance of being cured of their cancer at 10 years after diagnosis (76 percent), compared to those who don't take these medications (66 percent)"
• Statin Use Linked to Better Blood Pressure Control - Medscape, 10/23/07 - "After adjustment for demographics, body mass index, diabetes, smoking, exercise, low-salt diet, and antihypertensive medications, the odds ratio for having blood pressure under control was 1.46 for statin users compared with nonusers"
• Statins Cut Gallstones Risk - WebMD, 10/16/07 - "The study suggested that overall, current statin use slashed the risk of having gallbladder removal surgery by 18% -- no matter how long a woman had been taking the drug ... Women with diabetes who had been taking statins for two or more years reduced their risk of surgery by 75% ... Statins improve insulin resistance in people with diabetes but not in nondiabetics"