A new study shows that the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease could be reduced if you take a certain drug.
Statins refer to a type of medication designed to help the body’s vascular functions, reducing high cholesterol. New research published in the journal JAMA Neurology
on Monday suggests that these drugs could also reduce your chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease.
The statistics do not prove anything conclusively, but it did study a large number of people as it looked at 399,979 statin users age 65 or older. The research looked at data between 2009 and 2013. The medication saw that overall, the odds of having Alzheimer’s disease was 10% lower with the medication.
The statin drug simvastatin — brand name Zocor — lowered the risk of being afflicted with the illness for white women, Hispanic women, black women, white men and Hispanic men. Atorvastatin (Lipitor) produced similar results of reduced risk among white, black and Hispanic women and Hispanic men.
Pravastatin (Pravachol) and rosuvastatin (Crestor) only helped out white women. “We found risk reduction was slightly higher for women compared to men. So for women, the risk reduction and the onset of Alzheimer’s was 15%. For men, it was 12%,” study leader Zissimopoulos said..
Alzheimer’s disease damages memory and causes dementia, afflicting more than 5 million Americans at any given point in the U.S. It is the sixth-leading cause of death in the country.
