Veterans of the US Armed Forces must be the most studied group of warriors in the world.

A recent study looked at 10,202  male veterans (mean age 60 years) who were on treatment for high blood pressure, and followed them up for 10 years to study their mortality risk according to initial levels of fitness and whether they were taking statins.

Survival of the fittest was proved once again. Those who were initially in the highest quartile of peak exercise capacity showed a 52% lower morality risk when compared with the least fit subjects taking statins.

However, once again, statin use was associated with a risk reduction of about a third across all groups

Reference

Kokkinos, R.P., Faselis, C., Myers,  J., Kokkinos, J.P., Doumas, M., Pittaras, A., Kheirbek, R., Manolis, A., Panagiotakos, D., Papademetriou, V. & Fletcher, R. (2014) Statin Therapy, Fitness, and Mortality Risk in Middle-Aged Hypertensive Male Veterans. American Journal of Hypertension. doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpt241