Most of the muscle pain, which is pointed out as a common side effect of statin-type hyperlipidemia (dyslipidemia) treatment, is not caused by statins, a study has found.
Colin Baygent, a professor of epidemiology at Oxford University’s Population Health and the Medical Research Council, UK, and his team analyzed data from 23 statin-related clinical trials involving a total of 155,000 people. HealthDay News reported on the 29th.
Of these, 19 were randomized clinical trials with experimental and control groups, and 4 compared the side effects of low-dose and high-dose statins.
Overall, there was almost no difference in the incidence of muscle pain in the statin group taking 27.1% and the placebo group at 26.6%.
However, the statin group had a 7% higher rate of muscle pain than the control group only in the first year of taking statins.
Even so, the incidence of muscle pain in the first year of taking statins was only 1 in 15 in the standard-dose group and 1 in 10 in the high-dose group.
After the first year of treatment, the relative incidence of muscle pain in the statin group was not much higher than that in the control group.
Muscle pain is common with aging and has various causes, such as arthritis, thyroid dysfunction, and exercise.
Because muscle pain may occur at the same time as taking a statin, users may be suspicious of a statin, but the study showed that more than 90% of statins were not the cause, the researchers said.
Most of the studies that showed excessively high myalgia side effects of statins did not come from randomized controlled trials, the researchers said.
Because of these exaggerated findings, the researchers point out that it is not uncommon for people to turn away from statins and to stop taking statins.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. Eugene Yang, chair of the American Heart Association’s Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Committee, reaffirms the very low risk of muscle pain associated with taking statins.
Duke University School of Medicine cardiologist Dr Manesy Fadell said it would be a great relief for those who think their muscle pain is coming from taking statins, and it will help reassure doctors for those who are reluctant to take statins.
The results of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Barcelona, Spain, and were published in the latest issue of the British medical journal ‘The Lancet’.
/yunhap news