Statins and Alzheimer's- How is it connected?

Alzheimer's has been a long time issue that people across the globe are suffering from. There are several factors that contribute to the role of statins in control this disease. Some of the common factors don't require guessing and include gender, age, ethnicity, etc.

To make things simpler, there's an example. The cholesterol controlling station didn't seem to have played an important role in the life of black men. However, when it comes to women, the change was prominent irrespective of the type of statins they took.

But again the main question remains unclear, i.e, the role of statins in controlling Alzheimer's. In most of the cases, statins didn't play a prominent role and even if it did, the result seemed small.

According to Julie Zissimopoulos,a study author, those with better exposure to statins have lower chances of getting affected with Alzheimer's compared to the one's with lower exposure. "We examine individuals who have been taking statins consistently for at least two years, between the years 2006 and 2008, and follow them for another five years to examine onset of Alzheimer's. We compare them to groups of individuals with low exposure that either took statins less consistently between 2006 and 2008, or started them later -- after 2008."

The new study only claimed to show how each group might get affected through this therapy. It was conducted under 400,000 statin user, aged 65 years and over. The patients included those who took the medication from 2006 to 2008.

In another study, claimed by Prof. Dr. Gail Li, showed that high levels of cholesterol increase the chance of Alzheimers as compared to statins, which reduce it. Even though Dr. Li was not directly involved in this study, claimed that statins didn't help patients already suffering from Alzheimer's.

Zissimopoulos even claimed that the risk of developing Alzheimer's ranges from 9 percent to 17 percent till the age of 65 years. Again, Dr Li is of a different opinion and claimed the results might vary depending on the strength of each group.

Now, according to aging researcher Dr. Larson, people who suffer from high cholesterol and other vascular diseases need to take statin. However, factors such as tolerability, age and gender should always be considered.