Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Cholesterol-lowering Drugs may not prevent
Alzheimer’s Disease
Newswise — Contrary to
some reports, taking statins, which are
cholesterol-lowering drugs, offers no
protection against Alzheimer’s disease,
according to research published in the
January 16, 2008, online issue of
Neurology®, the medical journal of the
American Academy of Neurology.
The study involved 929
Catholic clergy members who were an average
of 75 years old, free of dementia at the
beginning of the study and enrolled in the
Religious Orders Study, an ongoing study of
aging and Alzheimer’s disease.
All of the participants
agreed to a brain autopsy at the time of
their death and underwent annual cognitive
tests for up to 12 years.
At the beginning of the
study, 119 people were taking a statin.
During the 12-year follow-up period, 191
people developed Alzheimer’s disease, of
whom 16 used statins at the start of the
study.
“Some studies have
suggested people taking cholesterol-lowering
drugs are less likely to have Alzheimer’s
disease, but our longitudinal findings found
no relation between statin use and
Alzheimer’s,” said study author Zoe
Arvanitakis, MD, MS, Associate Professor of
the Department of Neurological Sciences at
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago
and member of the American Academy of
Neurology.
“The study also found
no association between taking statins and a
slower cognitive decline among older
people.”
In addition,
researchers performed brain autopsies on
more than 250 people who died during the
study to examine the relation of statins to
Alzheimer’s disease pathology and stroke in
the brain, the two common pathological
causes of dementia.
The study found statin
use at any time during the course of the
study had no effect on pathology of
Alzheimer’s disease or strokes.
Arvanitakis says the
study is limited in that there were
relatively few statin users among those who
died. She says future studies will need to
look at the possibility of associations of
statins with other pathologic changes of
Alzheimer’s disease not examined in this
study.
The study was supported
by grants from the National Institute on
Aging.
The American Academy of
Neurology, an association of more than
20,000 neurologists and neuroscience
professionals, is dedicated to improving
patient care through education and research.
A neurologist is a
doctor with specialized training in
diagnosing, treating and managing disorders
of the brain and nervous system such as
stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy,
Parkinson disease, and multiple sclerosis.
For more information
about the American Academy of Neurology,
visit
http://www.aan.com.
