HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE: Statin use is associated with a 60% increased risk of interstitial lung abnormalities in smokers

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

Monday 25 November 2013

Statin use is associated with a 60% increased risk of interstitial lung abnormalities in smokers

2012 Mar 1;185(5):547-56

Study title and authors:

Statins and pulmonary fibrosis: the potential role of NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

Xu JF, Washko GR, Nakahira K, Hatabu H, Patel AS, Fernandez IE, Nishino M, Okajima Y, Hunninghake GM

Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22246178

The objective of the study was to evaluate the association between statin use and interstitial lung disease in smokers. The study included 2,115 subjects who were smokers and had had a CT scan. (A CT (computerised tomography) scan uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed images of the inside of the body).

The study found, that in people that smoke, statin users have a 60% increased risk of interstitial lung abnormalities compared to those who don't take statins.

Xu concludes: "Our findings demonstrate that statin use is associated with interstitial lung abnormalities among current and former smokers".