Posted on 09/04/2007 9:11:54 AM PDT by vietvet67
Elderly people taking statins had fewer of the twisted nerve-cell fibers that are common in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, researchers reported last week in a study based on brain autopsies.
The significance of the finding remains unclear, but this is the first time the potential effects of the cholesterol-lowering statins on brain pathology have been assessed by autopsy. Epidemiological studies of statins and Alzheimer's have had mixed results.
The researchers examined the brains of 110 men and women ages 65 to 79 who were enrolled in a larger study of dementia and had donated their brains for research. All were under 80 at enrollment, and one-third had taken statins for an average of five years before death. Simvastatin (Zocor) and lovastatin (Mevacor or Altocor) were the most common prescriptions.
Even though there was no difference in the incidence of apparent dementia in statin users compared with nonusers, the statin users had fewer small brain lesions and fewer of the twisted fibers called neurofibrillary tangles, even after controlling for sex, age at death, brain weight and other variables.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Whatis a statin?
review
statin info
http://www.spacedoc.net/
statin info
http://www.spacedoc.net/
Thanks.
From the article:
While acknowledging the study’s limitations, Dr. Li said it was an important beginning. “This is the first time we have linked brain changes to statin use,”
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Well, there’s another reason not to use statin drugs.
Pseudarthritis is frequently a consequence of an IgA reduction through the use of several of the more common anti-AIDs drugs (where the idea is to eliminate T-cells and their products that seem to favor AIDS virus reproduction).
Note that this has no effect on their being prescribed.
This sort of report makes me wonder, “Should I, at age 39, consider statins (and/or the emerging HDL-raising drugs) BEFORE my blood vessels get closer to being clogged?? Or are the side-effects of long term use too much?”
the side effects can be debilitating & doctors still put almost everyone over 50 on them - do lots of research before you even consider taking a statin drug.
Really long term effects are unknown. Quarterly dividends from selling statins are known, however, and by renorming serum cholesterol down to 100mg/Dl, these are assured. Quality of life issues from statin side effects are already appearing. I suppose the bright side is that if you start statins early enough, you will be too miserable and short-lived to care whether you get Alzheiner's or not, if you live long enough to develop it..
Someday this whole thing is going to blow up.
The best thing to do is read everything you can find, first, from legitimate peer-revied articles, NOT from Nature Food/Herbal websites, keeping in mind that any drug company funded work that shows adverse results do not get follow-on funding.
An informed decision would require/include research into natural alternatives that control excessive cholesterol.
Here is my unqualified opinion based on how I made the same decision in my mid 40s.
If you have a family history of heart disease, your cholesterol is high, and you have not been able to bring it down to a reasonably safe range without drugs, it is definitely something to consider. My doctor was very uncomfortable with how high my cholesterol was.
If you are still on the fence, go for a scan of your coronary arteries so you will know how much build up you have in them. My doctor sent me for this test. The results were good but he still did not want to leave the cholesterol so high, so I started taking the medication. I have no side effects at all.
On the other hand, the statin drugs wreck your liver.
Statin drugs are one of the biggest scams every foisted upon the public by Big Pharma.
I know what you mean - at 37, I haven’t been able to force myself to take the statins even though I got the rx filled.
@ 42 I was on the fence and had been there for a long time. But I promised myself I’d go where my research took me.
After considerable time researching the issue, and, in particular, after consulting the newest New England Journal of Medicine studies and megastudies (summation of studies) of the utility of statins I finally resolved myself to taking the dang things.
Two months in and so far so good. Of course I may have forgotten experiencing some negative side effects one of which, it is alleged though not proven, - global amnesia.
One Natural statin you might condsider is red rice yeast. It has a precursor to lovastatin and has much the same effect. It is cheaper than prescription drugs but very effective. I think it also may present less risk to the liver.
I tried it since my physicians (One an M. D. and the other a D.O.) and my mom who is an R.N. made me aware of some of the research on the drug. My cholesterol is down 20 points without needing a prescription.
Tough one. If you’re an otherwise healthy guy with no diabetes or HTN, an aspirin a day would be appropriate. I probably wouldn’t put someone healthy on it prophlactically.
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