Statins give people with irregular heartbeats new hope for preventing strokes
Atrial fibrillation is the most common irregular heartbeat problem, affecting over 40 million people around the world.
If you have it, you are five times more likely to have a stroke.
Although doctors often recommend blood-thinning medications to reduce this risk, these medications do not completely eliminate the danger.
That’s where a new study comes in that offers promising news for both patients and doctors.
The study: Statins make a difference
Presented at a major heart health conference in Barcelona, the study looked at over 50,000 patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation between 2010 and 2018.
They wanted to find out if taking statins — a drug commonly used to lower cholesterol — could reduce the risk of stroke and another event known as transient ischemic attack, which resembles a mini-stroke.
Patients were divided into two groups: those who started taking statins within a year of being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and those who didn’t.
The researchers then followed these patients for about five years. What they found was quite encouraging: those taking statins had a lower risk of both types of stroke and the mini-stroke.
To put it in numbers, taking statins reduced the risk of the most common type of stroke by 17%, the risk of a bleeding stroke by 7%, and the risk of a mini-stroke by 15%.
The longer the better
Interestingly, the longer patients took statins, the better the results.
Compared to those who took statins for short periods (between three months and two years), those who took them for six years or more had a 43% reduced risk of the most common type of stroke and a 44% reduced risk of bleeding Stroke and a 42% reduced risk of mini-stroke.
And it didn’t matter what kind of blood thinning medication they were on; The benefits were still there.
Ms. Jiayi Huang, the author of the study, said these results could be groundbreaking.
She stressed that strokes associated with atrial fibrillation can often be fatal or cause severe disability. This new information could be crucial in helping patients avoid such dire consequences.
What does that mean for you?
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, talk to your doctor about whether statins might be a good addition to your treatment plan.
These drugs are usually prescribed to people who need to lower their cholesterol levels. However, this study shows they may have another important benefit: they reduce the risk of stroke and mini-stroke, particularly in patients with atrial fibrillation.
The longer you take them, the better they seem to work. So it’s worth discussing this with your doctor.
If you care about heart disease, please read Studies on Chronic Itching Associated with Heart Disease. Drinking coffee this way can prevent heart disease and stroke.
For more information on heart health, see recent studies on dietary supplements that may prevent heart disease and stroke, and the results showing that a year of intense exercise in middle-aged people reversed worrying heart failure.
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