According to new research, taking statins lessens the chance of having rheumatoid arthritis.

The study researchers examined 1.8-million members of Maccabi Healthcare Services (a health maintenance organization [HMO]) in Israel in order to distinguish adults those who had statins on a regular basis and didn't have the chronic inflammatory disease.

After making adjustments for constituents that could bias the study, the researchers discovered that sufferers who regularly took statins showed a lower risk of having the disease as compared to patients who did not took statins.

However, there was only a small short-term decrease in risk ratio in patients taking statins and the development of osteoarthritis.

The researchers stated, "Larger, systematic, controlled, prospective studies with high efficacy statins, particularly in younger adults who are at increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis, are needed to confirm these findings and to clarify the exact nature of the biological relationship between adherence to statin therapy and the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis."

The results of the study are released in this week's PLoS. (With Inputs From Agencies)