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

Thursday 26 January 2012

Statins double the risk of stroke

This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine 2005 Jul 21;353(3):238-48

Study title and authors:
Atorvastatin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing hemodialysis.
Wanner C, Krane V, März W, Olschewski M, Mann JF, Ruf G, Ritz E; German Diabetes and Dialysis Study Investigators.
Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. wanner_c@medizin.uni-wuerzburg.de

This study investigated the effects of statin (atorvastatin) treatment in diabetic patients receiving hemodialysis. The study included 1,255 subjects with type 2 diabetes who were receiving hemodialysis who were assigned to receive either 20 mg of atorvastatin per day or matching placebo.

The study found:
  • Those receiving atorvastatin had twice the risk of a fatal stroke.
  • Death rates were similar in both groups.

This study found that atorvastatin increased stroke risk and had no effect on total death rates.