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Cholesterol Statin Drugs May Cause Birth Defects

The April 8, 2004 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports that pregnant women who take the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins stand a much higher risk of having babies born with birth defects.

Researchers from the United States National Institutes of Health discovered that exposing babies to statins in the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with limb deformities and severe central nervous system defects.

The researchers point out that other studies have shown that “these are the kinds of problems that occur if the embryo does not get enough cholesterol in early pregnancy to develop normally.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires warning labels on the drugs advising against taking them during pregnancy.

The problem lies in the fact that many pregnancies are not planned and women continue to take the drugs unaware they are exposing their babies to danger.

In this study, 20 out of 52 babies exposed to statins in the womb were born with birth defects.

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