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A miracle drug that may cut COVID death risk by up to 12% – study

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A new study adds to the growing body of evidence that widely prescribed cholesterol drug statins may help reduce people’s chances of dying from Covid.

More scientists are now siding with them, claiming that the low-cost pills could serve as a Covid preventive measure.

Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the US with about 40 million Americans currently take them.

The drugs reduce ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, which experts say can promote artery hardening and narrowing, a cause of heart attacks and strokes.

However, they have been regarded as controversial in the past, with some opposing their use as preventative medicine and others claiming that some of the drug’s negative effects are not worth the advantages.

The latest study’s authors, from the Karolinska Institutet, believe that the effects of statins on Covid may be due to how they act.

Statins that lower LDL cholesterol levels may benefit Covid patients since LDL causes inflammation, making patients more likely to survive the virus’s inflammatory symptoms.

The study examined medical data from 963,876 Swedish adults over the age of 45 recorded between March and November of last year. This covered the reason of death, such as Covid, as well as whether or not they had been taken statins.

Statins were observed to be used by 169,642 of the participants, accounting for roughly 17% of the total.

By the end of the trial, 2,545 persons had died from Covid, 765 of whom were statin users and 1,780 of whom were not. 

According to the findings, statins had a moderate influence on the risk of death from Covid, resulting in a 12% reduction.

One of the researchers, Rita Bergqvist, stated that this did not differ significantly across different data groups, such as gender.

“Our results suggest that statin treatment can have a moderate prophylactic effect on Covid mortality,” she said. 

According to fellow study author Viktor Ahlqvist, the study results revealed that there was no harm in continuing to use statins during the outbreak.

The study authors also pointed out a number of limitations in their study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine

One limitation was that they were unable to account for health risk factors like obesity or smoking, which could have skewed the results.

Another issue was that researchers were unable to establish the actual dosage or brand of statin medicine that participants were taking.

Tim Chico, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield, said the study provided some insights into the interplay between statins and Covid.

“This study does not prove that statins reduce death in Covid, but does provide some supportive clues,” he said. 

He agreed with the authors that a randomized controlled trial was required to determine whether statins lowered the number of people who died from the infection.

Professor Chico warned against leaping to conclusions about statins, citing earlier examples of treatments thought to fight against the virus that turned out to be inaccurate.

“There has been far too much speculation and premature confidence about which drugs are useful for Covid(such as hydroxychloroquine). It’s important to learn from this and to be suitably measured in how we describe these results,” he said. 

“These results do not in any way justify using statins to treat Covid.”

He went on to say that the best strategies to reduce the chance of death from the illness were to keep social distance, wash hands, wear masks, and get vaccinated.

Professor Chico stated that for those who are very ill with the virus, there are currently treatments with solid evidence of improved outcomes, such as the steroid dexamethasone.

The Swedish study is the latest in a series looking into statins as a possible treatment for Covid infection.

Researchers in San Diego discovered earlier this year that individuals who took any type of statin (alone or in conjunction with anti-hypertension medication) had a 41% decreased risk of death when admitted to the hospital for Covid.

Another study released last year, this time by the Yale School of Public Health, discovered that individuals admitted to the hospital with Covid who began taking statins while the virus was still in its early stages had a 43% lower chance of mortality.

Image Credit: Getty

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