The Health Benefits Of Taking Statins Can Last a Decade

By Weight Loss Resources Andrew Hoyle

A major study just published indicates that statins (a medication taken to lower cholesterol) can halt and possibly reverse the development of heart disease. The benefits continue for up to ten years after people stop taking the medication. Currently over three million patients in the United Kingdom are taking statins because they have elevated levels of “bad” cholesterol.

The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine have just published a study showing that people who had taken statins continued to show benefits from taking the drugs even ten years after they had stopped the medication. The research was carried out by scientists from the University of Glasgow who calculated heart risk factors leading to a fatal heart attack had dropped by twenty five per cent in those who had taken statins, with no discernable side effects.

The results were based on a study of 6,595 middle age men in the west of Scotland who were followed for 10 years after most stopped taking the drug. That group was compared with a control group of men who were given a placebo during the initial five-year study. The beneficial effects of statins are probably due to the stabilization of existing plaque in the blood, reducing the chance of developing coronary artery disease.

Statins, have been widely praised in the medical world in recent months. Earlier this year the drugs were found to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's by eighty per cent. The drugs work by reducing the LDL type of cholesterol in the blood which can clog vessels.