The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Statin use might increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration

This study was published in the Archives of Ophthalmology 2006 Jan;124(1):33-7

Study title and authors:
3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme a reductase inhibitors and the presence of age-related macular degeneration in the Cardiovascular Health Study.
McGwin G Jr, Modjarrad K, Hall TA, Xie A, Owsley C.
Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Suite 609, 700 S. 18th Street, Birmingham, AL 35294-0009, USA. mcgwin@uab.edu

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16401782/

The objective of the study was to evaluate both the use of cholesterol-lowering medications as a group and the use of statins specifically with regard to the risk of age-related macular degeneration. The study included 2,755 men and women aged over 65 years.

The study found:
(a) Those taking cholesterol-lowering medications had a 35% increased risk of age-related macular degeneration compared to those not taking cholesterol-lowering medications.
(b) Those taking statins had a 40% increased risk of age-related macular degeneration compared to those not taking statins.

McGwin concluded: "Statin use might increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration".