With cardiovascular disease on the rise, heart health is of the utmost importance. It’s estimated that 70 percent of people over 70 years old will develop cardiovascular disease in their lifetime, per the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). Of course, we can help prevent heart disease by consuming a well-balanced diet, monitoring stress levels, exercising, and maintaining a healthy weight. However, new research now indicates that statins can also work as a preventative treatment, especially among geriatrics.
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The human body produces “good” cholesterol and “bad” cholesterol. The bad kind, medically known as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, is what can trigger heart attacks and stroke if left ignored. Statins are a medication that can help lower and control LDL levels and consequently, even help save your life.
“As we age, our risk of having a heart attack or a stroke increases. Having high levels of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol in your blood further increases your risk. Statins are a type of medicine that lower levels of LDL cholesterol and reduce risk of heart attacks and stroke,” Borislava Mihaylova, PhD, an associate professor and senior health economist at the University of Oxford, told Medical News Today.
Statin use is most prevalent in middle-aged adults. However, new research published in the journal Heart suggests that people over 70 years old should consider speaking with their doctor about the cholesterol drug, especially if their LDL levels are borderline.
“Despite high risks of heart disease and stroke in older people, and high need for preventive treatment such as statins, fewer older people use statins compared to middle-aged people,” explained Mihaylova, who led the study.
Mihaylova and her team of researchers combed through 20,000 data profiles courtesy of the U.K. Biobank and Whitehall II study. For their study, they specifically looked at adults 70 years or older with and without a history of cardiovascular disease. It should also be noted that this study was limited to the U.K.
From there, the data was entered into “a cardiovascular disease microsimulation model” that predicted participants’ cardiovascular risks, survival rate, quality-adjusted life years, and healthcare costs “with and without lifetime standard or higher intensity statin therapy.” And their findings might encourage you to call your family’s doctor.
The microsimulation model found that standard statin therapy reduces LDL cholesterol levels by 35 to 45 percent, whereas higher-intensity statin treatment lowers LDL cholesterol by at least 45 percent, probably more. Additionally, lifetime standard statin treatment increased quality-adjusted life years by 0.24-0.70, and 0.04-0.13 for higher-intensity statin therapy.
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“We’ve known for a very long time that statins prevent heart disease. They’re especially effective for patients who already have heart disease to prevent a recurrent event—that means another heart attack, stroke, or leg artery blockage,” board-certified cardiologist and lipidologist Yu-Ming Ni, MD, told Medical News Today.
He continued, “Patients benefit from these medications by reducing their risk for events, it improves the quality of life, and reduces symptoms from those events, and the result is that people live longer and healthier.”
Aside from their health benefits, statins were also found to be cost-effective in both health groups (those with and without a history of heart disease). Speaking to the outlet, Mihaylova said that statin treatment is “likely to be of good value-for-money” for adults over 70.
“Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of disability and death. In addition to statin treatment, people at high cardiovascular risk need further effective and cost-effective treatments to reduce their risks,” she explained.
