Vitamin D Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin D, including details on sources, melanin, benefits, deficiency, supplements, calcium absorption.

Are statins analogues of vitamin D?

Grimes DS

Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Blackburn, Lancashire BB6 8HE, UK. Susan.Rogers@elht.nhs.uk

There are many reasons why the dietary-heart-cholesterol hypothesis should be questioned, and why statins might be acting in some other way to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Here, I propose that rather than being cholesterol-lowering drugs per se, statins act as vitamin D analogues, and explain why. This proposition is based on published observations that the unexpected and unexplained clinical benefits produced by statins have also been shown to be properties of vitamin D. It seems likely that statins activate vitamin D receptors.

Published 3 July 2006 in Lancet, 368(9529): 83-6.
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