Cholesterol-lowering drugs may not prevent Alzheimer's disease

[Guest guest]

Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own

opinion. I have no further knowledge of the topic. If you do not wish to

receive these posts, set your email filter to filter out any messages

coming from @nutritionucanlivewith.com and the program will remove

anything coming from me.

---------------------------------------------------------

Public release date: 16-Jan-2008

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/aaon-cdm010808.php

Contact: Babb

ababb@...

American Academy of Neurology

Cholesterol-lowering drugs may not prevent Alzheimer's disease

ST. PAUL, Minn. – 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.

--

ne Holden, MS, RD < fivestar@... >

" Ask the Parkinson Dietitian " http://www.parkinson.org/

" Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease "

" Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy "

http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/