By David Liu, PHD

Thursday Spet 6, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in European Heart Journal suggests that taking statins, a group of cholesterol lowring medications indicated to lower cholesterol and help prevent heart disease, may also help reduce the risk for sudden cardiac death but not cardiac arrest.

The study led by Kazem Rahimi of  University of Oxford in Oxford, UK and colleagues showed that men and women who took statins were at 10 percent reduced risk for sudden cardiac death, which is caused by unexpected cardiac arrest. The risk reduction seems to be moderate, but still significant.

The authors say that how statins affect ventricular arrhythmic complications had been unclear and their study was intended to examine whether use of statins could reduce the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmia, cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.

Included in the current study were 29 trials of statins against control involving 113,568 participants  with each trial including more than 100 participants and lasting for six months or longer.

Use of statins was found associated with reduced risk of sudden cardiac death. but not ventricular tachyarrhythmia and cardiac arrest.  Statins were also associated with 22 percent reduced risk for other non-sudden cardiac deaths.

The researchers concluded "Statins have a modest beneficial effect on sudden cardiac death. However, previous suggestions of a substantial protective effect on ventricular arrhythmic events could not be supported."

Sudden cardiac death occurs within one hour of the onset of symptoms often due to a cardiac arrhythmia. Sudden cardiac death or death from sudden cardiac arrest is responsible for 300,000 to 400,000 deaths annually in the U.S., according to a report by Douglas P. Zipes and Hein J. J. Wellens and published in the journal Circulation.

Cardiac arrest is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to the failure of the heart to contract effectively.  Unexpected cardiac arrest also called sudden cardiac arrest can often times lead to death, which is called sudden cardiac death.