A new report published in this month's issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that a class of cholesterol reducing medications known as statins may prevent heart problems in older patients. According to the article, researchers followed nearly 6,000 men and women 65 years and older from 1989 until June 1997. Data obtained from the study, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging, showed statin patients were at a 56 percent lower risk of suffering a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack.

Several leading physicians, though, are still skeptical of the study's results. In an editorial appearing in the same issue, Dr. Scott Grundy from the University of Texas Medical Center in Dallas cautioned readers that the study was not a controlled clinical trial, which he said could lead to "obscure definitive conclusions."

Although the safety of statins has come under scrutiny since the August 2001 Baycol recall, researchers believe the report is "growing evidence" that the medications reduce the risk of heart problems in elderly patients.