Statins and Alzheimer's
New research has found that statins don't protect against Alzheimer's disease, disproving previous research that suggested otherwise, according to study in a recent issue of the journal
Neurology.
Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and other researchers followed 929 Catholic nuns, priests and brothers from around the country. The participants' average age was 75 and they didn't have any form of dementia at the study's onset. They underwent cognitive and neurological tests every year for up to 12 years and consented to having brain autopsies after their deaths.
At the start, 119 of the participants were taking a statin drug. Over the course of the study, 191 people developed Alzheimer's disease.
Brain autopsies on more than 250 of the participants who died during the study examined whether statins changed the brain structures associated with Alzheimer's disease or with another type of dementia involving stroke in the brain. No relationship was seen with either type of dementia, researchers said.