Posted on 10/30/2009 5:23:51 AM PDT by dangerdoc
Oct. 29, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- Once again, the popular cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have been shown to be good for more than the heart: They may also lower your odds of dying of the flu.
In a large study of people hospitalized with seasonal influenza, those who were taking statins were about 50% less likely to die than those who weren't taking the drugs.
"Our preliminary research suggests there may be a role for statins in influenza treatment," says Meredith VanderMeer, MPH, of the Oregon Public Health Division.
The statin drugs include Crestor, Lescol, Lipitor, Mevacor, Pravachol, and Zocor.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
For the study, VanderMeer and colleagues combed the medical records of 2,800 people who were hospitalized with seasonal flu in 10 states during the 2007-2008 influenza season -- before the H1N1 strain caused the current swine flu pandemic. The sample of people studied is representative of people across the U.S., she says.
Of the total, 801 were taking statins for high cholesterol and continued to take them while hospitalized.
Overall, 17 (2.1%) of patients taking statins died while in the hospital or within 30 days afterward, compared with 64 (3.2%) who were not taking statins.
After taking into account other risk factors such as age and use of antiviral drugs, this corresponded to 54% lower odds of death for statin users, VanderMeer tells WebMD.
The researchers did not look at whether duration or dose of statin affected the results. But they are now analyzing the data to determine if one brand of statin is associated with better odds of surviving the flu than another.
Other research has also suggested that statins may help keep the flu virus in check by lowering inflammation and activating the immune system, VanderMeer says.
She called for studies in which some flu patients are given statins and others are not, and both groups are followed over time.
In the meantime, people with the flu shouldn't ask their doctors to prescribe statins in hopes of having a better prognosis, says the University of Utah's Andrew Pavia, MD, head of the IDSA's pandemic influenza task force.
"But if you're on statins for your cholesterol, you may be getting some extra benefit," he tells WebMD.
That's a pretty small group and also "when" during the flu process did they arrive at the hospital. I would like to know how many in the group had a shot.
But what do these drugs do to your liver?
Bwahahahahaha!
Jus' flu viruses doing a job doctors don't know about ~
For most people, the statins do not affect the liver. For a subset, it causes liver inflamation, which if detected and the medication is stopped, is reversable.
Also, once again we need to emphasize that people do not get hospitalized and/or die from “influenza” per se. Patients are (largest group by far statistically IIRC) admitted and later die due to respiratory/pulmonary distress/failure from (bacterial) pneumonia.
I can believe that statins in the system do boost a person’s ability to withstand the effects of bacterial pneumonia.
*** to re-emphasize — this H1N1A SOI is NOT a powerful people killer.
This is your typical worthless study by some Doctor looking for publicity or research money from the government.
You have ONE YEAR. You have 801 study subjects. You have NO other information except that some were taking a drug and some were not. You do not know why they were in the hospital, how old they were, what their health condition was or their health history.
This is typical of a lot of the so-called health breakthroughs you see on your local news, like “Red Meat Causes Colon Cancer” which is another one of these type of studies. These are Garbage period>
(repost from the main influenza thread)
This should be looked at with considerable skepticism, because an earlier extensive statistical study in New Mexico which noted a correlation between statins and reduced mortality was later reexamined by a British group which determined it was flawed.
The problem was that individuals taking statin drugs are generally younger and healthier, and this created a bias in the statistics which would exist without the use of statin drugs.
Importantly, the action of statin drugs is problematic as well. They are technically HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, which interfere with the metabolic pathway that produces cholesterol and other isoprenoids.
Isoprenoids, otherwise known as terpenoids, is where the problem lies. This means that the statins *also* interfere with the production of other chemicals that we don’t *want* interfered with.
Like coenzyme Q-10. If you take a statin drug, you also need to take a CoQ10 supplement. CoQ10 is found in every cell of the body, and is essential to mitochondrial energy production. As such, you rarely notice it, unless you run low in it, in which case it can cause severe health problems in every part of your body. Starting with the heart.
The steroids and sterols in animals are biologically produced from isoprenoid precursors. You may not want to run low on these either.
In other words, statin drugs should be used with caution. However, if they do have anti-influenza properties, which still needs to be determined, then it would be far more important to use them in the short term than worry about the possible side effects.
[I will add that there is currently a prescription drug that may be very useful in avoiding the very dangerous secondary infections which may occur with influenza caused lung damage. If someone is hit with the very acute form of influenza, needing hospitalization, the use of this drug should be brought to the attention of the attending physician immediately.]
http://www.rxlist.com/avelox-drug.htm
Avelox$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
For a couple of weeks of not dying, I personally am willing to let an evil, money engorged pharma company make some bucks. If you have a better suggestion, pipe up.
Yep, discuss options with your doctor.
That med is great but I’m not sure about it’s MRSA coverage, and, at least in my region, that has been the secondary infection killing people.
Sometimes the newest most expensive choice is not the best. An infectious disease doctor familiar with the local pathenogens would make a recommendation based on recent local sensitivity testing.
Didn’t mean to offend, but that antiobiotic is being pushed heavily by the drug reps for conditions that are adequately treated with meds costing a tenth the price. Seeing it mentioned on FR just made me chuckle a little.
I just checked the local sensitivity reports. Our MRSA is sensitive to Avelox.
This would be a great angle for the reps.
Secondary lung infections are open to a whole host of buggers. Not just Staphylococcus aureus, but Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Moraxella catarrhalis.
“Atypical” bacteria are Coxiella burnetti, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophila.
That is why it may not be such a bad idea to use a broad spectrum antibacterial agent if the patient is in a high risk group and it looks like their influenza is going acute. No time to spare.
We had a local healthy teen go from cold symptoms to admitted to the ICU in less than 24 hours. Despite multiple broad spectrum antibiotics, he was dead in 4 days. I just recently heard that he was confirmed H1N1 but they think it was the MRSA that killed him.
I hope people are taking the flu vaccine more seriously this year. There are still people posting here stating that they won’t take the vaccine.
Judging from the mortality reports I’ve seen, the highest risk groups are very young children, children with serious unrelated conditions like asthma and diabetes, and otherwise healthy older children who have engaged in vigorous aerobic exercise like running, soccer and softball a day or so before they went acute.
Importantly, lung damage may not be evident on X-Rays, only CAT scans. And bacterial lung necrosis may be less critical than oxygen deprivation, either caused by fluid and lung damage, or by the thickening of lung tissue, making it less oxygen permeable.
A big drop in mortality has been seen with the use of external blood oxygenation.
So right now, it is still indeterminate whether the mortality is being caused by virus, bacteria, cytokine storm, or secondary effects.
I don’t think there is an ECMO machine in the hospital. I believe the closest to our location is 60 miles away assuming they are not all in use.
I really wish there was more vaccine available.
Which flu vaccine? The seasonal one or the H1N1?
Both.
The seasonal flu vaccine has an H1N1 component, this year, they picked the wrong one, the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine is an addendum to to normal vaccine.
"Of the total, 801 were taking statins for high cholesterol and continued to take them while hospitalized."
You have 801 study subjects. You have NO other information except that some were taking a drug and some were not. You do not know why they were in the hospital, how old they were, what their health condition was or their health history.
You have NO other information? They combed their records of 2800 admitted for seasonal flu. Most of the data should have been available from the history, including prior medical history, and physical examination done on admission.
Thanks. Interesting. As the comments suggest, you could question this study, and probably further studies are needed. But it seems to me that the numbers are high enough to be suggestive.
As it happens, I take lipitor on my doctor’s recommendation, and so far have had no problems with it. I also take ToCoQ10 supplement. That was my idea after reading about it here in the forum and looking it up; but my doctor now approves.
It seems to me that the sample is large enough, and the difference between those taking statins and those not taking statins is large enough (not merely marginal), to suggest that there may be something to this. In any case, it’s nice to hear something GOOD about lipitor.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.