Cholesterol drugs may help counter rheumatoid arthritis

The study, conducted by researchers from the Maccabi Healthcare Services in Tel Aviv, confirmed that adults who took statins on a daily basis did not have rheumatoid arthritis.

Details of the study
For the purpose of the study researchers assessed medical records of 1.8 million patients from Maccabi Healthcare Services, an Israeli health centre.

Participants who took statins on a daily basis were 42 percent less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as compared to those who were prescribed to take them occasionally.

Also, younger the age when a person started statins, greater were the benefits conferred to his joints, researchers found.

The findings held true even after adjusting factors like age and other health problems.

Not helpful in countering osteoarthritis
The findings reveal that statins weren’t effective against osteoarthritis, the most common form of rheumatoid arthritis, caused not by an impaired immune system but by wear and tear of the cartilage.

"There was only a small short-term decrease in risk ratio in patients taking statins and the development of osteoarthritis," researchers said.

Reasons for linkup
How statins help lessen the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis is not clear. But researchers believe the anti-inflammatory properties of statins help counter rheumatoid arthritis.

But more research is required in this regard, the researchers averred.

"Larger, systematic, controlled, prospective studies with high efficacy statins, particularly in younger adults who are at increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis, are needed to confirm these findings and to clarify the exact nature of the biological relationship between adherence to statin therapy and the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis," authors wrote in the week’s issue of the journal 'Public Library of Science Medicine.'

In further trials, the drugs found a potent use in preventing or delaying the onset of rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disorder that causes stiffness, pain, and swelling in joints.

No known cure for arthritis is available yet. Existing treatments are known to trigger heart attacks and strokes.