{"id":870595,"date":"2026-10-04T15:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870595\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:34:09","slug":"major-update-for-people-taking-common-drug-over-death-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870595\/","title":{"rendered":"Major update for people taking common drug over \u2018death risk’"},"content":{"rendered":"

An update has been issued to people taking a common medication for cholesterol after research was published by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The research showed that Atorvastatin reduced major cardiovascular events by 30% in older people without known cardiovascular disease, diabetes or dementia, but did not significantly improve disability-free survival. The drug is designed to lower high cholesterol<\/a> and triglycerides in the blood and to help prevent heart attacks<\/a> and strokes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Until now, the risk\u2212benefit of statins to prevent cardiovascular events in older adults without known cardiovascular disease<\/a>, diabetes, or dementia<\/a> was uncertain due to underrepresentation in major statin trials. In the UK, an estimated 7 to 8 million adults take statins. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence says that around 5.3 million people in England alone were given a recommended statin or ezetimibe by their GP in 2023\/24. It reveals that the most frequently prescribed statins include atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and fluvastatin.<\/p>\n

Lead Researcher, Professor Sophia Zoungas, from the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Melbourne, Australia, said: “An estimated 21,000 older Australians suffer from major cardiovascular events, like heart attack and stroke, each year.<\/p>\n

“The trial is the first large randomised controlled trial to examine whether statins can be used for primary prevention in older patients to help them live longer in good health<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The trial involved people aged 70 years and over with no history of clinical cardiovascular disease, diabetes or dementia. 9,971 participants were randomised (1:1) to oral atorvastatin 40 mg daily or placebo. The study population had a mean age of 74.7 years, and 52% were women.<\/p>\n

The two main focuses of the research were major cardiovascular events, defined as cardiovascular death<\/a>, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke or coronary revascularisation, and disability-free survival, defined as survival free of dementia and physical disability.<\/p>\n

The researchers demonstrated that the risk of major cardiovascular events was reduced by 30% in the atorvastatin group compared with the placebo group over a median follow-up of 5.9 years.<\/p>\n

But the risk of death, dementia or persistent physical disability did not substantively differ between the two groups. The ESC was told: “Muscle, liver and diabetes-related adverse events were more frequent in the atorvastatin group; however, all serious adverse events were uncommon, occurring in 2.7% of participants in both the atorvastatin and placebo groups.”<\/p>\n

Professor Zoungas said: “With the world’s population ageing at an unprecedented rate, answering fundamental questions about healthy longevity has become a universal imperative. The risk of heart attack<\/a> and stroke is a concern for older people, and knowing there is an effective measure for lowering that risk will be a huge reassurance to older people and their families. We hope to see updated guidelines to help clinicians make use of these new findings.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An update has been issued to people taking a common medication for cholesterol after research was published by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243],"class_list":["post-870595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}