Statins: Reduces Glaucoma Risk in Patients

According to a nationwide study of more than 300,000 patients, people who take statins to decrease their risk of cardiovascular disease are less likely to be diagnosed with the most common form of glaucoma.

Statins also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors are a group of drugs used to minor cholesterol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a vital role in the creation of cholesterol in the liver. The study reveals that the risk for glaucoma was reduced by eight percent in patients who took statins constantly for two years, compared with patients who did not take statins.

Various study’s findings suggest that statin use may be most crucial before glaucoma is diagnosed, or in the early stages of the disease. Statins’ apparent capacity to decrease glaucoma risk may be due to several factors, as well as improved blood flow to the optic nerve and retinal nerve cells and enhanced outflow of the aqueous fluid, which may reduce intraocular pressure.

Glaucoma affects more than 2.7 million Americans age 40 and adult. If untreated, glaucoma causes vision loss or loss of sight by damaging the eye’s optic nerve. The optic nerve sends signals from the retina to the brain, where these signals are interpreted as the images we see. Just about half of the people who have glaucoma know it, as symptoms are rarely noticed in the early stages and vision loss is very gradual in most cases.

By inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase, statins obstruct the pathway for synthesizing cholesterol in the liver. This is important because most circulating cholesterol comes from interior manufacture rather than the diet. Even as the liver can no longer produce cholesterol, levels of cholesterol in the blood will fall. Cholesterol synthesis appears to occur typically at night, so statins with short half-lives are usually taken at night to maximize their effect. Studies have revealed greater LDL and whole cholesterol reductions in the short-acting simvastatin taken at night rather than the morning, but have shown no difference in the long-acting atorvastatin.