Although it remains unclear whether statins have an impact on knee OA outcomes, patients with OA who used statins for more than 5 years, as well as those who used atorvastatin, demonstrated a significantly reduced risk for experiencing knee pain, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

“It was reported that statins have multiple effects on inflammation at cellular and extra-cellular level, including reduction in inflammatory cytokines and T cell activation,” Nicola Veronese, MD, of the Neuroscience Institute’s National Research Council, Padova, Italy, and colleagues wrote. “Given that many of these systems are influential on OA, it is possible that statins may have a role in altering the course of the progression of knee OA and its symptomatology, which may be counteracted by the well-known muscle ache, developed under long-term statins use.”