Statins Work Double Time Against Atrial Fibrillation
The statins your doctor has prescribed to help reduce cholesterol in your bloodstream could be helping you in more ways than one. At least that’s what the findings from a recent study seem to indicate.
Patients taking statins, often prescribed under the brand names Lipitor, Crestor, and Vytorin, among others, were found to be at less risk, by 61%, of developing distressing atrial fibrillation than patients not taking statins. The 3,600 patients in question had all reported episodes of atrial fibrillation after suffering a heart attack or having coronary bypass surgery.
Atrial fibrillation is the sensation of a racing heart that is caused by an irregularity in the beating rhythm of the heart, a form of arrhythmia. The incidence of atrial fibrillation increases as we age and it marks a dramatic increase in the risk of having a stroke.
About 3% or 4% of the population over 60 years of age (about 2.2 million Americans) experiences atrial fibrillations and the chances increase with age. The good news is that the condition is easily detected and treated but the newly discovered benefits of statins may make treatment easier still.
These findings come from analysis of six controlled trials led by Laurent Fauchier, MD, PhD, a cardiology professor at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Trousseau in Tours, France, who suggests the use of statins may reduce the number of strokes or minimize decline in patients already suffering from heart disease.
While Fauchier does not specifically advocate the use of statins in treating atrial fibrillation at this time, he does suggest bonus benefits when taking it as prescribed for cholesterol-lowering purposes.
Full details of the Fauchier report and other similar works can be found in a special issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology (JACC) devoted to atrial fibrillation due out on February 26
Source: American College of Cardiology
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A compound contained in red wine called resveratrol, discovered by Dr. Sinclair of Harvard, has been shown in peer reviewed studies to beneficially modulate the effects of statin drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor by approximately 55%. In studies of biotivia transmax, a lab grade concentrate of resveratrol used by reseachers, this compound also exhibited important neuroprotective effects against Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease. Resveratrol research could lead to a non-toxic and inexpensive treatment which operates at the gene level to intercept these diseases. Trials are currently underway at Colombia University and Woods Hole Institute as well as several European institutes on biotivia transmax and Dr. Sinclair is developing a synthetic variation of it which will be sold as a prescription drug, if eventually approved by the FDA.