Statins and Diabetes Patients

Filed in archive Developments , Research , Treatment on January 10, 2008

In a separate post, I wrote about the anti-cancer properties of statins.

Statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs taken by people with cardiovascular conditions.

Now, according to a study led by researchers at the Oxford-based Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration working with colleagues in Australia, diabetes patients can benefit from statins.

But researchers who pooled data on the effects of statins on almost 90,000 people found that a wide variety of patients benefited from the treatment, irrespective of the type of diabetes they had.

Diabetes increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and, although previous research has pointed to the potential benefits of taking statins, no researchers have examined this in detail.

In the new study, scientists found that after an average period of 4.3 years, deaths among people with diabetes fell by 9% for every step reduction in their levels of bad cholesterol.

Well. It seems that statins are on the spotlight this week, but in a very good way.

Find more details from Guardian Limited.

[Photo Credit: UK Telegraph]