A study of more than 16,000 people participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that taking statin drugs in combination with dietary supplements was associated with a significantly lower risk of high cholesterol compared with taking statins alone. Additionally, taking dietary supplements and statins was associated with lower levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and higher levels of beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

Doctors prescribe statin drugs to lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and raise levels of HDL cholesterol, which can help decrease the risk of cardiovascular events. Atorvastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin and rosuvastatin are popular statin drugs.

This analysis divided individuals in the study into four groups consisting of those who used statins alone, statins plus supplements, supplements alone or neither statins nor supplements. Among those who were treated with statins alone, 15.6% had high total cholesterol levels (defined as 240 mg/dL or higher), HbA1c concentrations averaged 6.3% and HDL cholesterol averaged 47 mg/dL. For those who used statins plus vitamins, just 5.1% had high total cholesterol, while HbA1c averaged 6.0% and HDL cholesterol averaged 50 mg/dL.

While the group who used statins plus dietary supplements had the lowest levels of total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol of the four groups, those who consumed nutrients but not the statins had the lowest levels of HbA1c and triglycerides and the highest HDL levels.

Interestingly, the significantly healthier diets of dietary supplement users—and other unmeasured lifestyle factors—could have influenced these results.

The NHANES data was collected over a five-year period, from 2013 to 2018, by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study was reported in the January 2023 issue of Current Developments in Nutrition.¹