High cholesterol levels can narrow arteries and form blood clots, putting people at risk of heart attack or stroke. While some people lower cholesterol through diet and exercise, many people use medications to lower cholesterol and its associated health risks.
However, the researchers in Vienna suspected that the high levels of cholesterol-controlling drugs, statins, might be linked with osteoporosis – a bone disease. To find a direct link between the two, a study was conducted in mice that looked at the effects of high doses of statins on bone density. The researchers studied a group of 71 mice (39 male and 32 female) in the laboratory.
Scientists fed mice a high-fat diet for several weeks to increase their cholesterol levels. Later, the researchers divided these mice into two groups. One was the control group and the other was the test group.
The rats in the test group were given high doses of statins for about five and a half months and the researchers examined the bone density of the mice using micro-CT. According to scan analysis, bone density was reduced by 42 percent in male mice and 32 percent in female mice of the test group.