One of my patients this morning wanted a statin prescribed to ward off macular degeneration. She had perfect cholesterol. I wasn’t aware of any trials connecting the two and told her I’d look into it. Here’s what I found:

A new study from UAB indicates that patients who take cholesterol-inhibiting drugs known as statins are less likely to develop symptoms of age-related maculopathy (ARM), better known as macular degeneration. The findings suggest a possible association between ARM and cardiovascular disease.

Interesting connection, but certainly more research is needed before I’ll give the statin for this reason. As an aside, seems like statins are the aspirin for the 21st century.