Study finds statins taken by eight million Britons reduce risk of dying from Covid

Cholesterol drugs taken by around eight million Britons could reduce the risk of death from coronavirus, new study finds.

Statins, taken to lower “bad” blood cholesterol, have been found to reduce mortality by 43% compared to non-users of statins.

The British Heart Foundation says statins are typically prescribed over 70 million times per year.

Now, a team has analyzed 12 studies on the drug’s effectiveness, which involved 110,078 patients who died from the coronavirus.

They found that giving statins to hospital patients in the early stages of Covid infection reduced the death rate by almost half.

The tablets are taken once a day and come under brands like Lipitor, Lescol, and Crestor.

They have been shown to help protect people with cholesterol from heart attacks and strokes.

However, there is a lot of debate about them, with side effects like weight gain, muscle pain, and liver damage.

Several studies have also been carried out to assess their effectiveness in fighting Covid – many drawing very different conclusions.

The new study, however, saw a team from the Yale School of Public Health review all previous research, including 12 studies of more than 100,000 Covid deaths.

They found that people who took statins before contracting coronavirus were not protected by the drug.

However, those who started taking them to hospital during the early stages of the virus saw their risk of death drop by 43%.

Those who took statins after becoming seriously ill did not see the same drop in mortality.

Lead author Dr Lori Daniels said: ‘We have found that statins are not only safe, but potentially protective against severe Covid-19 infection.

“Statins can specifically inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection through its known anti-inflammatory effects and binding abilities, as this could potentially stop the progression of the virus.

Despite the positive outlook for the study, other research has come to a very different conclusion on the effectiveness of statins in fighting Covid.

A French study found in November that patients with both type 2 diabetes and Covid had a higher risk of death if they were already taking statins.

About 12.8% died within a week and 23.9% within a month.

This compared to 9.8% and 18.2%, respectively, in the statin-free group.

The study authors concluded that their results “did not support” the role of statins as a preventative measure in these people.