Statins, Heart Disease And Inflammation

Published by drlundell on December 10th, 2008

There are a few lines of evidence. One is that people with immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus have a raised risk of heart attacks. It’s also known that white blood cells and immunological hormones assist cholesterol damage in arteries.

And it is also known that statins - cholesterol-lowering medications - reduce the risk of heart attacks more than you’d expect from their cholesterol reduction, and they have immune effects.

Summarizing the findings from the three recent papers, they suggest that while cholesterol lowering is still vital, reducing inflammation - the immune reaction in arteries - is important too.

In one study of people on statins, the lower the inflammation, the lower the heart attack risk. In another study of people on a statin, the lower the bad form of cholesterol and inflammation, the slower artery blockage progressed. And a third study of markers of inflammation showed an association with the risk of heart disease.

Some lifestyle changes may help lower inflammation, like exercise and diet if you don’t like fancy medications, but that’s yet to be proven conclusively.

Dr. Norman Swan

For Reference

Title: New England Journal of MedicineAuthor: Nissen S et al, Statin therapy, LDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein and coronary heart disease. URL: http://content.nejm.org/ 2005, vol 352, pp 29-38.
Title: New England Journal of MedicineAuthor: Ridker PM et al, C-reactive protein levels and outcomes after statin therapy. URL: http://content.nejm.org/ 2005, vol 352, pp 20-28..
Title: New England Journal of MedicineAuthor: Ehrenstein MR et al, Statins for atherosclerosis - a good as it gets? URL: http://content.nejm.org/ 2005, vol 352, pp 73-75.
Title: New England Journal of MedicineAuthor: Pai J et al, Inflammatory markers and the risk of coronary heart disease in men and women. URL: http://content.nejm.org/ 2004, vol 351, 2599-2610.
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