Statins ‘reduce the risk of Covid death’: study shows cholesterol drugs taken by eight million Britons reduce the risk of dying from the virus in hospital patients by 43%
- Statins target ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood and are used by eight million Britons
- A study has now shown that giving statins to Covid patients can reduce the risk of death
- The study was a review of 12 other studies examining the effectiveness of statins in reducing mortality from coronavirus
Cholesterol drugs taken by about eight million Britons may reduce the risk of death from the coronavirus, a new study claims.
Statins, taken to lower ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood, were found to reduce mortality by 43 percent compared to non-statin users.
The British Heart Foundation says statins are typically prescribed more than 70 million times a year.
Now, a team has analyzed 12 studies of the drug’s effectiveness, looking at 110,078 patients who died from the coronavirus.
Statins, taken to lower ‘bad’ blood cholesterol, have been found to reduce mortality by 43 percent compared to non-statin users
They found that administering statins to hospitalized patients in the early stages of Covid infection reduced the death rate by nearly half.
The tablets are taken once a day and are available in brands such as Lipitor, Lescol and Crestor.
They have been proven to help protect cholesterol patients from heart attacks and strokes.
However, there is a lot of debate about it, with side effects including weight gain, muscle pain and liver damage.
Several studies have also been conducted to assess their effectiveness in the fight against Covid – many of which draw very different conclusions.
However, the new study saw a team from the Yale School of Public Health review all previous studies, which amounts to 12 studies involving more than 100,000 Covid deaths.
They found that people who took statins before contracting the coronavirus were not protected by the drug.
However, those who started taking them in the hospital in the early stages of the virus saw their risk of death decreased by 43 percent.
Those taking statins after becoming seriously ill did not see the same drop in mortality.
Lead author Dr. Lori Daniels said: “We found that statins are not only safe, but also potentially protective against a serious Covid-19 infection.
“Statins can specifically inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their known anti-inflammatory effects and binding properties, as that could potentially stop the progression of the virus.”
Despite the study’s positive outlook, other research has come to a very different conclusion about the effectiveness of statins to fight Covid.
A study from France in November found that patients with both type 2 diabetes and Covid had a higher risk of death if they were already on statins.
About 12.8 percent died within a week and 23.9 percent within a month.
This compared with 9.8 percent and 18.2 percent in the non-statin group, respectively.
The study authors concluded that their findings “did not support” the role of statins as a preventive measure in these people.