Statins may help patients with gout

StatinS could benefit gout patients and help them to live longer, suggests research based on a five- year study of 17,000 Britons.

the study found that gout patients who were also prescribed statins — drugs given to lower cholesterol to prevent heart attack and stroke — had a 16 per cent lower risk of dying prematurely, according to researchers from Harvard University writing in the journal Seminars in arthritis and Rheumatism.

Gout is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death, and one theory is that statins may help because they have an anti-inflammatory effect.