Do commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) speed up the aging process? That's what a media scare said yesterday:
I'm no fan of the common over-prescribing of drugs like statins, but this alarm is not too believable.
What the researchers showed was that statin drugs make stem cells - that rejuvenate the body - divide more slowly in a test tube. This could be expected, as statins slow access to the cholesterol building blocks needed for cell division.
However, slowing the division of stem cells is not necessarily speeding up the aging process (even if it might feel that way). As stem cells have a limited number of divisions it could actually preserve stem cells. It could be argued to likely slow the aging process.
Don't believe every new alarm in the media. They are biased toward new shocking, especially negative, scary headlines. That's what brings readers.
Bottom line on statins
Statins have plenty of proven side effects - like the risk of muscle pain, weakness, feeling tired and increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. On the other hand they do reduce the risk of heart disease.
Thus statins should only be used by people with really high risk of heart disease, meaning mostly people who already have proven heart disease, like people who've already had a heart attack.
Statins are not vitamin pills.
