A new study in The Lancet has suggested that people benefit from taking the popular cholesterol busting drug Simvastatin regardless of the base levels of LDL cholesterol (the bad sort) and C-reactive protein (CRP) – a marker for systemic inflammation and associated with cardiovascular risk.
This study seems to fly in the face of another study published 2 weeks ago that indicated that statins were of no benefit (and possibly harmful) to people who did not have high levels of LDL cholesterol but it is consistent with other studies over the years – including the influential Jupiter study of Crestor that pointed out the benefit of this statin to people with high levels of CRP.
The research that was published in The Lancet was carried out by Oxford University over 5 years. There were over 20,000 subjects, all of whom had a high risk profile for cardiovascular events such as strokes and heart attacks. Not all subjects had high LDL or high base level CRP. The volunteers were randomised to either 40 mg Simvastatin or a placebo. After the 5 years were up, the data were analysed and the Simvastatin group had a 24% lower level of cardiovascular events. A further analysis of the data discovered that there was a reduced risk of cardiovascular events regardless of base levels of LDL cholesterol or CRP levels.
There may be a lot of conflicting messages about statins but the balance of medical opinion is that these drugs (while not without serious side effects in a small number of cases) have the ability to revolutionise the way that we can prevent cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.