[Statins--"21st century aspirin"?].

Doctors prescribe patients more and more medications. This predominantly affects elderly people. Polypharmacy is more and more frequent and predominantly affects elderly people. It may lead to many harmful and virtually life threatening drug interactions. There is pressing need to investigate new remedies, which would be applied in many different and coexisting medical conditions. It is vital particularly in case of elderly people who usually suffer from many different diseases which have numerous common pathogenetic pathways. 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, also known as statins, are a widely prescribed drug class for treatment of dyslipidemias and their complications such as coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral arteriosclerosis. Now, there is accumulating evidence that statins also have beneficial pleiotropic effects that may make them useful in treatment of such diseases as dementia, osteoporosis, some forms of cancer, diabetes mellitus and its microangiopathic complications, hypertension and prevent deep vein thrombosis. Should we call statins "21st century aspirin?" This paper reviews recent data concerning the possibility of using statins in new indications; particularly in dementia (including Alzheimer's disease), osteoporosis, cardiovascular accidents and some forms of neoplasms.