Popular drugs to lower cholesterol may protect against cataracts, too, according to a new study. Researchers at the Tel Aviv University in Israel have found that statins, a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, reduced men’s risk of cataracts nearly 40 percent.
The large, long-term study evaluated a population of more than 180,000 new statin users for about 10 years, monitoring them for the development of cataracts and subsequent need for cataract surgery.
Men between the ages of 45 and 54 who took statins daily to reduce their cholesterol had a 38 percent reduced risk for developing cataracts. Women of the same age who took statin drugs had a reduced risk of about 18 percent.
Statins may lower the risk of cataracts due to anti-inflammatory effects of the medications, according to the study’s authors.
It’s unclear whether people who are not at risk for cardiovascular disease should take statins for cataract prevention, the researchers say.
SOURCE: Persistence with statins and incident cataract: A population-based historical cohort study. Annals of Epidemiology. February 2010.
Tags: cataract prevention, medications, statins