Statin Reduces Risk of Blood Clots

During the circulatory physiology part of the class we discussed embolisms and the ways in which they are treated. Many of the drugs taken to reduce the occurrence of embolisms are anti-coagulants. While these work well they inherently carry the risk of causing the body to be unable to stop internal and external hemorrhages effectively. These statin drugs (such as Crestor), previously designed for regulation of cholesterol, have been shown to reduce the risk of of heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke. This is nothing ground-breaking in and of itself, but these drugs also eliminate the serious side effect of the other clot-preventing drugs on the market in that they do not inhibit the body's clotting ability. This could eliminate the need for powerful anti-coagulant drugs such as warfarin which carry serious risk of internal bleeding.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7971414.stm