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, 19 January 2016

Doctor says statin use could be contributing to rising rates of cataract surgery

This study was published in Ophthalmic Epidemiology 2016 Jan 14:1-6

Study title and authors:
Statin Use and Incident Cataract Surgery: A Case-Control Study.
Erie JC, Pueringer MR, Brue SM, Chamberlain AM, Hodge DO.
Department of Ophthalmology , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26766069

The purpose of the study was to determine the association between statin use and cataract surgery. The study included 6.024 participants aged 50 years and older who had first-eye cataract surgery, who were matched with control participants who had never had cataract surgery.

The study found:
(a) Cataract surgery was significantly associated with 29% increased odds of statin use in all participants
(b) Cataract surgery was significantly associated with 34% increased odds of statin use in women.
(c) Cataract surgery was significantly associated with 17% increased odds of statin use in men.  

Erie concluded: "Incident cataract surgery was associated with increased odds of statin use, and underscores the possibility that increasing statin use could be contributing to rising rates of cataract surgery."

Links to other studies:
Statin users have an increased risk of cataract
Statin use is significantly associated with cataract requiring surgical intervention
Adverse Effects of Statins