A Statin for Your Eyes?

If we could increase the blood flow to the retina without changing the size of the retinal vessels, that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? Yes – and it looks as if statins may be able to do this. A report in the Archives of Ophthalmology from Japanese researchers shows that 20 mg Zocor® (simvastatin) given for 7 days to healthy young volunteers significantly reduced serum total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol - as expected – but also increased the blood velocity and retinal blood flow by around 20%. Intraocular pressure (a measure of glaucoma) was decreased by about 13% in these healthy men. And plasma nitrite/nitrate levels were increased by 60%.

All these changes suggest that the statin increased blood velocity, probably by the increase in nitric oxide acting on the capillaries. They suggest that statins might be a potential treatment for diabetic retinopathy, as well as for macular degeneration and glaucoma. Statins are truly wonder drugs, if all these findings bear out.