Statins Linked To Lower Risk Of Cataracts

A five-year study of people who took cholesterol-lowering statin drugs found they had a 40 percent lower incidence of the most common kind of cataract.

And the incidence of nuclear cataracts, in which the lens of the eye grows cloudy as a person ages, was 60 percent lower in statin users who never smoked and didn't have diabetes, the scientists said.

The best explanation is that the benefit is linked to statins' antioxidant activity, said Kristine Lee, a statistician at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who was involved with the study.

"Part of the reason we looked at statins is that oxidative stress is correlation to cataract development," Lee said.

No relationship was found between statin use and two less common forms of the eye condition, cortical and posterior subcapsular cataracts.

The findings are reported in the June 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Wisconsin scientists examined data from the Beaver Dam Eye Study, which followed 1,299 persons who were first examined between 1998 and 2000. In the five-year follow-up period 12.2 percent of the statin users developed nuclear cataracts, compared to 17.2 percent of people who weren't taking the drugs.

Because smoking and diabetes are known to increase the risk of nuclear cataracts, the scientists did a further analysis. That's where they discovered the 60 percent lower risk in nonsmokers without diabetes who took statins.



Posted by: Mike    Source