Study Shows People Taking Statins Have Less Severe Psoriasis

March 8, 2010 (Miami Beach, Fla.) — Once again, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have been shown to be good for more than the heart.

Already linked to a reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and cancer, statins also may help to improve symptoms of psoriasis, researchers report.

In a study of 232 people taking medication for psoriasis, those who also took statins had fewer of the thick, red, scaly, itchy patches that are the hallmark sign of psoriasis, compared with people who didn’t take the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

“There was a trend toward less severe psoriasis severity in people taking statins,” says researcher Adam Perry, a fourth-year medical student at Emory University in Atlanta.

The study is preliminary and doesn’t prove cause and effect. And no one should start taking statins in an attempt to ward off psoriasis symptoms, doctors stress.

But the findings, presented at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting, raise an interesting possibility worthy of further study, experts agree.

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Source WebMD Health News