Statin medications are used to lower patients' cholesterol levels, thus helping prevent coronary heart disease, stroke and other deaths related to high cholesterol levels.

For patients receiving kidney transplants, treatment with cholesterol-lowering "statin" drugs may lead to longer survival, reports a study in the November 2008 Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Statins, the most effective treatment for lowering cholesterol, are widely used and have been demonstrated to be safe in large clinical trials. Although side effects are usually mild, more severe side effects, especially musculoskeletal complications, have been reported.

Statin drugs are helping many people lower their cholesterol, but a new study reveals that statins actually increase the production of another protein that limits their benefit.

Statins, the popular class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, are among the most commonly prescribed medications in developed countries. But for some patients, accompanying side effects of muscle weakness and pain become chronic problems and, in rare cases, can escalate to debilitating and even life-threatening damage.

Scientists have provided new details about how a drug used against heart disease helps to unclog blood vessels from an excess of cholesterol and fats. The results help explain how the drug works and may provide ways to improve similar drugs in the future.

In head-to-head trials of two drugs, the one deemed better appears to depend largely on who is funding the study, according to an analysis of nearly 200 statin-drug comparisons carried out between 1999 and 2005.

Statin drugs, known primarily for their ability to lower cholesterol, also may reduce the overactive sympathetic nervous system response that contributes to the worsening of heart failure and increases the risk of sudden cardiac death, two University of Missouri-Columbia researchers have found. Heart failure is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States.

For some patients with high cholesterol, even the most aggressive treatment with statin drugs fails to prevent coronary artery disease. Patients with hyperlipidemia - high LDL or "bad" cholesterol and trigylcerides, and low HDL or "good" cholesterol - and those with a family history of high cholesterol are at a high risk for atherosclerosis, or plaque build up in the coronary arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.