Taking stating drugs can lower the risk of heart attacks in men even after 10 years since the interruption of the treatment, Scottish scientists reported.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, their research included 6,595 middle-aged men- with an average age of 55- who took pravastatin (which is now on sale in different forms but was originally introduced by Bristol-Myers Squibb as Pravachol) for at least 5 years.

Researchers found that during the period in which statin was administered men had a 40 percent lower chance of suffering a stroke, and that the chances of a heart failure were still quite low (18 percent) even after 10 years since the interruption of the treatment.

Ian Ford of the University of Glasgow in Scotland said that "Statin treatment for an average of five years provided an ongoing reduction in the risk of coronary events for an additional period of up to 10 years."

The study, unfolded over a period of 15 years, also showed that men included in the group treated with had a chance of dying from any form of heart disease of only 11.8 percent, compared to the control group, which had chances of 15.5 percent (the control group had taken placebo). All subjects included in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study had high levels of cholesterol in their blood and were recruited between 1989 and 1991.

The scientists also praised statin’s lack of side effects, besides its overall positive influence on health. "There was no evidence of an overall increase in the risk of death from noncardiovascular causes or cancer, or in the incidence of cancer."