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What Should You Tell Patients About Alzheimer’s?
Patients and caregivers seek information and guidance on preventing, living with, or coping with Alzheimer’s disease. What should you tell them? Read more »
Using EHRs in Nursing Homes: Avoiding Unnecessary Pain
Physicians must adopt EHR technology and demonstrate meaningful use by October 1, 2014, or face a 1% reduction in Medicare reimbursements in 2015. How can it be implemented in long term care? What are the obstacles? Read more »
Eating Disorders’ Prevalence Increases
With the increasing incidence of eating disorders among older adults, it’s important to recognize the symptoms and implement appropriate treatment. Read more » |
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Statins are certainly effective in helping to control high cholesterol, and substantial numbers of older adults take such medications. But the findings of a recent study may give pause to physicians who prescribe statins and to the patients who take them.
The study indicated that statins can counteract the benefits of exercise. Compared with sedentary overweight patients who would be likely to derive a significant benefit from taking statins, research indicated that patients who didn’t take statins fared better.
In our E-News Exclusive, several experts weigh in on the subject.
In addition to reading our e-newsletter, be sure to visit Today's Geriatric Medicine's website at www.TodaysGeriatricMedicine.com, where you’ll find news and information that’s relevant and reliable. We welcome your feedback at TGMeditor@gvpub.com. Follow Today's Geriatric Medicine on Facebook and Twitter, too.
— Barbara Worthington, editor |
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Statins With Exercise Warrant Monitoring
By Mike Bassett
For physicians treating older patients whose cholesterol levels have been creeping above normal levels, a typical response is to prescribe statins and suggest that these patients—particularly those who are overweight and inactive—begin some kind of exercise regimen.
But what if it turns out that statin use actually could curtail the benefits of exercise? A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that could be the case.
In the study, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine analyzed 37 obese and previously sedentary individuals who followed an exercise program for 12 weeks. These individuals were divided into two groups: one exercise-only group and one group that combined exercise with statin use.
“What we found, surprisingly, is that if these individuals started exercising and [taking] statins at the same time, the statins seemed to block exercise-induced improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness,” says John Thyfault, PhD, a study author and associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s Clinical Research Center.
Study results indicated that those who followed an exercise-only program increased their cardiovascular fitness by 10%, while those who followed an exercise program combined with statin use experienced just a 1.5% increase in cardiovascular fitness.
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