Statins may not reduce risk of Alzheimer's after all

Several studies in recent years have raised hopes that cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, but a major new study has found no Alzheimer's benefits to the drugs. "Physicians should not prescribe them for Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center who was the lead researcher of the research, published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

Statins are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States. Some researchers think the cholesterol-fighting drugs might also help protect kidneys and help prevent arthritis, bone fractures and colon cancer. Cholesterol appears to play a role in the development of Alzheimer's, so the theory went that lowering cholesterol might fight the disease. An alternative theory is that statins might fight Alzheimer's by reducing inflammation in the body. The Rush study followed volunteers for as long as 12 years. Similar "longitudinal" studies also have found that statins provide little or no Alzheimer's benefit, Arvanitakis said. The Rush study included 929 Catholic nuns, priests and brothers. Volunteers underwent annual cognitive tests and agreed to have their brains autopsied when they died. The 119 volunteers who used statins at the beginning of the study were just as likely to develop Alzheimer's as non-statin users, the researchers found.

Bonnie - while statins may have a marginal effect on Alzheimer's because of the inflammation reduction, it is definitely not a panacea. Fish oil may be a much more effective complementary therapy for Alzheimer's prevention by not just reducing inflammation, but much more.