A NEW HOPE FOR DAIBETICS Statins, which are drugs used to lower
cholesterol levels in people with or at risk of cardiovascular disease, should be prescribed for most patients with diabetes. A pooled data study involving almost 90,000 participants found that a wide range of patients benefited from the statin
treatment, irrespective of what kind of diabetes they had. Researchers from the oxford-based cholesterol Treatment Trialists collaboration, working with reseaechers in Australia,pooled together and analysed results from 14 randomised trails. The studies included 18,686 patients with both type1 and type2 diabetes, and 71,370 without diabetes. Over an average period of 4.3 years, deaths among diabetes sufferers fell by 9percent for every step reduction in "bad" cholesterol levels. People without diabetes experienced a death rate reduction higher. The tema found that the number of major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes fell by a fifth for millimole per liter reduction in blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL). The authors of the study, writing in Lancet, said: " The meta analysis shows convincingly that the proportional benefits of statin therapy on major vascular events were similar in wide range of individuals".