HMM: No benefit to statin drugs for healthy seniors, study says.

There is no evidence to support the widespread use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to prevent heart disease and stroke in old and very old people, Spanish researchers say.

For the new study, the investigators analyzed data from nearly 47,000 people aged 75 and older with no history of heart disease.

Statins were not associated with a reduced risk of heart disease or death from any cause in healthy people over age 75, the study found.

But among people aged 75 to 84 with type 2 diabetes, statins were linked to a 24 percent lower risk of heart disease and a 16 percent lower risk of death from any cause. This protective effect declined after age 85 and was gone by age 90, the findings showed.

The study, led by Rafel Ramos, a researcher at the University of Girona in Spain, was published online Sept. 5 in the BMJ.

The results do not support the widespread use of statins in healthy old and very old people, the study authors said. But the findings do support statin treatment in those under 85 years of age with type 2 diabetes, they concluded.

Bad news for statin manufacturers.