{"id":91811,"date":"2019-07-31T14:36:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T21:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91811"},"modified":"2019-07-31T14:36:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T21:36:01","slug":"taking-statins-after-75-nearly-halves-risk-of-heart-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/31\/taking-statins-after-75-nearly-halves-risk-of-heart-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking statins after 75 \u2018nearly halves risk of heart attack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Times (UK)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Continuing to use statins after the age of 75 nearly halves the risk\nof a heart attack<\/a>, research has suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking\nthe drugs into old age could also reduce the risk\nof a stroke<\/a> by a quarter, according to the first study to focus\non what happens when people aged above 75 stop using statins. Scientists have\ndebated whether healthy older people with no history of heart-related\nconditions should take statins, with some arguing that there is no evidence of\nany benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers\nfound that stopping the drugs after the age of 75 was associated with a 46 per\ncent higher risk of a heart attack and a 26 per cent increased chance of\nsuffering a stroke. Overall, the French study of more than 120,000 over-75s taking statins suggested that those who stopped\nwere 33 per cent more likely to need hospital treatment for a heart or blood\nvessel-related problem over the next four years than those who continued with\nthe medication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statins<\/a> are\none of the most commonly prescribed drugs in Britain, used by about six million\npeople. They help to prevent heart attacks and strokes by lowering levels of\nbad cholesterol\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NHS\nguidance says that people who have a 10 per cent or higher risk of developing\nheart disease in the next decade should be offered statins. This includes most\npeople aged over 75, although decisions are made on an individual basis.\nPrevious research has suggested that about 40 per cent of over-65s prescribed\nstatins stop taking them. In the latest study, researchers analysed data from\nthe French national health insurance claims database, including statin\nprescriptions and information on hospital diagnoses and clinical procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nlooked specifically at patients who had turned 75 between 2012 and 2014 and had\nbeen taking statins for at least 80 per cent of the time in the previous two\nyears but were in good health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nfollowed 120,173 people for up to four years, during which time 14.3 per cent\nchose to stop taking statins and 4.5 per cent were admitted to hospital with a\ncardiovascular problem. The researchers did not have access to data on deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlead researcher, Philippe Giral, of Assistance Publique-H\u00f4pitaux de Paris,\nsaid: We estimated that an extra 2.5 cardiovascular events per 100 people\nwould occur within four years among those who discontinued their statins at the\nage of 75 years compared with those who continued taking statins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers\ndid not have precise information on why patients stopped taking the drugs but\nsome ceased because they developed other health problems or started cancer\ntreatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous\nresearch into statins and older people has been based on analysis of\nsubsections of wider data but the latest study, published in the European Heart Journal<\/em>, was the first to look\nexclusively at a large number of healthy over-75s who were taking statins. The\nresearch was observational, meaning it could show only an association and could\nnot prove that stopping the drugs raised health risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir\nNilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: This\nstudy, although observational, adds to evidence that statins reduce heart\nattacks and strokes in older people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q&A: How do statins work? <\/strong>
\nThey lower cholesterol in the blood by limiting a liver enzyme which regulates\nits production. This helps to prevent heart attacks and strokes because high\ncholesterol can narrow arteries over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the problem with older people taking them?<\/strong>
\nThere is conflicting evidence about whether statins benefit healthy older\npeople with no history of heart disease or stroke. In September a Spanish study\nof 47,000 patients with an average age of 77 suggested that statins only helped\nthose with type 2 diabetes, for example. Some doctors think prescribing statins\nto healthy people is wasteful. Side effects such as diarrhoea or headaches are\nreported by some users.
\n
\nHow could they help over-75s?<\/strong>
\nA study published in The Lancet<\/em> this\nyear suggested that giving statins to everyone over that age could save up to\n8,000 lives a year. Today\u2019s research adds weight to this claim, suggesting that\nwhen older patients continue to take them they have a lower risk of heart\nattacks and strokes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Times (UK) Continuing to use statins after the age of 75 nearly halves the risk of a heart attack, research has suggested. Taking the drugs into old age could also reduce the risk of a stroke by a quarter, according to the first study to focus on what happens when people aged above 75 stop using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}