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WORLD / Health
Statins may help prevent Alzheimer's
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-28 10:27
WASHINGTON -- Statin drugs may help prevent the brain damage that leads
to Alzheimer's disease, US researchers reported on Monday.
Their study, published in the journal Neurology, bolsters a growing body
of research that suggests the popular cholesterol-lowering drugs may
reduce the risk of Alzheimer's.
Most studies have simply compared people who take statin drugs to those
who do not, and track the rate of Alzheimer's.
"But our study is the first to compare the brains of people who had
received statins with those who had not," said Dr. Gail Ge Li of the
University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, who worked on the
study.
Li and colleagues examined the brains of 110 people aged 65 to 79 who had
donated their brains for research after they died as part of a study when
they were still living.
The researchers looked at the brains for evidence of the plaques and
tangles that characterize Alzheimer's, an incurable and progressive brain
disease that is the leading cause of dementia.
They found significantly fewer tangles in the brains of people who had
taken statins than in those who had not.
"These results are exciting, novel, and have important implications for
prevention strategies," said Dr. Eric Larson, who helped direct the study.
"But they need to be confirmed, because (ours) is not a randomized
controlled trial."
Such a trial would be difficult to conduct. It would require randomly
assigning people to either take statins or not, watching to see who
developed Alzheimer's, and looking at their brains after they died.
Statin drugs lower cholesterol and may also reduce inflammation in the
body. The causes of Alzheimer's are not fully understood, but they are
closely linked with cholesterol and also inflammation.
"Statins are probably more likely to help prevent the disease in certain
kinds of people than others," Li said.
"Someday we may be able to know more precisely which individuals will
benefit from which types of statins for preventing the changes of
Alzheimer's disease," Larson added in a statement.
Statins -- which include Pfizer Inc's $10 billion-a-year Lipitor,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's Pravachol and Merck and Co Inc's Zocor -- are
the world's best-selling drugs, taken by millions to reduce the risk of
heart attack.
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