Statins: How the drug prevents heart attacks and strokes
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Thanks to their unparalleled cholesterol-lowering effects, statins have attracted attention as a wider treatment for many conditions. But many of those eligible to take the drug are reluctant to, due to undesirable side effects. As a result, the benefit-to-harm balance of the drug has been widely disputed among health circles. One meta-analysis highlighted four oral complications associated with the drug.
Statins are a family of drugs that represent safe therapeutic agents that target cholesterol synthesis in the liver.
Different forms of statins produce different aftereffects, the most notorious being muscle pain.
In one line of research published in the Journal of Translational Medicine in 2020, researchers identified four oral side effects of statins.
The authors of the meta-analysis set out to establish the potential beneficial effects of statins on oral diseases.
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They found that statin treatment conferred a positive effect on various aspects of periodontal disease.
One of the studies identified in the review, however, looked at patients aged 50-70 years old, who were receiving statins treatment after being diagnosed with hyper-cholesterolemia.
The patients were referred to a dentist’s office, where records regarding their oral symptoms were obtained.
The authors explained: “Statin treatment was then discontinued, which was followed by various laboratory tests and repeat visits to the dentist at seven and 15 days after statin discontinuation.”
A high percentage of oral symptoms observed in the study included dry mouth, itchiness, bitterness and cough during statin therapy.
What’s more, they observed a marked improvement in patients after they temporarily interrupted their statin treatment.
The authors added: “This study included a relatively small number of patients and a more thorough and detailed design of experimental treatments is needed to establish a true correlation between statin treatments and oral symptoms.”
Dry mouth, or xerostomia, is the most common oral side effect of the cholesterol-lowering drug, according to Endocrine Abstracts.
What’s more, one study published in Therapeutic Advances in Respiration Disease found that for every 10,000 reports of statin-associated adverse events, approximately one in 40 reports were for statin-induced interstitial lung disease (IDL).
“This shows that statin-induced ILD is a newly recognised side effect of statin therapy which can present as a cough,” noted the study authors.
A bitter taste in the mouth has been linked to both statins and blood pressure pills, among other drugs.
Alongside these mouth complications, other side effects reported in connection to the drug have included difficulty swallowing.
But the most notorious side effect associated with the drug remains muscle pain, which sees many come off the treatment.
Research last year, however, suggested the nocebo effect may be why people think statins cause muscle symptoms.
Harvard Health explains that a “placebo can enhance healing or pain relief, while a nocebo has the opposite effect – making people feel worse”.
It was suggested the nocebo effect may account for nearly 90 percent of the ill health associated with cholesterol-lowering statins.
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