Cholesterol-lowering ‘statin’ drugs - such as Lipitor or Zocor, for example - also lower blood pressure to a modest extent, according to a report at the American Heart Association annual meeting.

The results of a 6-month University of California San Diego study show that statin therapy led to small but significant reductions in blood pressure, on the order of about 7 points for both the upper and lower readings.

Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb of UCSD described study, which involved 1016 men and postmenopausal women without known heart disease whose LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels were high.

The participants were randomly assigned to take simvastatin (Zocor), pravastatin (Pravachol) or placebo for 6 months. Blood pressure was measured before, during and after the trial.

Blood pressure was significantly reduced to a similar degree with both statin drugs, with the effect beginning to be apparent after one moth of treatment and disappearing by two months after the drugs were stopped.

The study had limitations, Golomb acknowledged, but she commented that the findings “may help to explain stroke reduction with statins, since LDL cholesterol bears little relationship to stroke risk, while blood pressure is a potent risk factor.”