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Statins Stave Off Dementia in High-Risk Group

Some medical situations increase the risk of developing dementia as we age but a University of Michigan (UM) study has proven that individuals taking the statin class of drugs to reduce “bad” cholesterol levels did not develop dementia as expected.  In fact, they were only about half as likely to develop dementia than study participants who had not taken statins.

The UM study followed a group of older Mexican-Americans living in Sacramento, California, who all had metabolic conditions thought to increase the risk of developing dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or cognitive impairment without dementia.  Some of these risky metabolic conditions include high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Mary Haan, professor of epidemiology at the UM School of Public Health, led her team of colleagues through a multi-phased study of these same California individuals beginning in 1997.  An earlier finding of the study was that certain vascular and metabolic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, raise a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.  Haan’s own studies revealed that type 2 diabetics are as much as three times more at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than non-diabetics.

Statins are commonly prescribed to lower low-density lipoproteins (LDL), also known bad cholesterol.  At the beginning of the study, 1,674 participants proved to be free from dementia.  During the course of the study, 452 of this segment of the study population, or 27%, were prescribed statins at one point or another.

All study participants were followed for five years, during which time only 130 of them developed cognitive impairment or dementia, leading Haan to say dementia was prevented in about half the study participants taking statins.  At this point, no one knows how the statin drugs work against dementia but there is a theory that high insulin levels may increase a person’s risk for developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  Statins may act on pathways supplying insulin to the brain.

Haan says her next step is to discover how, exactly, statins work on the biochemical processes that lead to dementia.  She says there is no way to determine how many people have fended off dementia without knowing it simply by taking statins.

Haan says no one should begin taking statins to ward off dementia but should take it as prescribed for cholesterol until further studies prove statins prevent dementia when taken before any signs of dementia become apparent.

Haan’s study is published in the July 29 issue of Neurology.

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