If you have either high cholesterol or lung cancer, you may see information about the benefits of numerous substances for treating your condition. Two of these are the vitamin beta-carotene and the prescription drugs known as statins. Discuss any therapeutic agent with your doctor before trying it, even a vitamin supplement available over the counter. Also use caution in combining substances such as statins and beta-carotene, because doing so can cause unwanted effects.
Statins and Cholesterol
Statins are drugs prescribed to lower cholesterol. These drugs also might help your body reabsorb some of the cholesterol built up in plaques along your artery walls. This, in turn, helps prevent additional blockage in blood vessels and lowers risk for a heart attack.
Beta-Carotene and Heart Attack Risk
Beta-carotene is a carotenoid. This group of red, yellow and orange pigments in food provides about half of the vitamin A in the typical American diet. It’s also available as a supplement. Beta-carotene is also an antioxidant. This nutrient and other antioxidant vitamins have a theoretical benefit of preventing heart attacks, according to MedlinePlus. However, the American Heart Association issued a science advisory stating that scientific evidence does not back using antioxidants like beta-carotene to reduce risk for heart disease.
Interaction Risk
Using beta-carotene along with antioxidant vitamins C and E and selenium can decrease the effectiveness of some statins. According to MedlinePlus, it remains unknown as of 2011 whether beta-carotene alone decreases the effectiveness of these cholesterol-lowering drugs. Consult a doctor before using beta-carotene or other supplements if you take statins.
Beta-Carotene, Statins and Lung Cancer
Beta-carotene also once had a now disproven theoretical benefit for reducing lung cancer risk, the second-most-common cancer among men and women, according to a May 2007 “CHEST” study. Researchers are focusing on chemoprevention when it comes to this disease because survival rates are so poor, notes lead study author Jhanelle Gray. Chemoprevention is the use of agents such as vitamins and other supplements or drugs to prevent, reduce or reverse carcinogenesis. In phase 3 clinical trials, beta-carotene was actually associated with an increased risk for lung cancer, rather than the theoretical decreased risk. Statins, in addition to cholesterol-lowering effects, appear to have antitumor effects. However, many unanswered questions remain and must be investigated via clinical trials before statins can be recommended or debunked as a chemoprevention agent for lung cancer, according to Gray.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Beta Carotene; December 2008
- MedlinePlus; Beta Carotene; July 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Statins – Are These Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Right for You?; February 2010
- “Chest”; Statins and Lung Cancer Risk; Jhanelle Gray et al.; May 2007
- “The Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaque”; Renu Virmani; 2006
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