Statins may protect against dementia

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 29 (UPI) -- People at high risk for dementia who took cholesterol-lowering statins were half as likely to develop dementia as those who didn't, U.S. researchers said.

The study tracked older Mexican-Americans in Sacramento, Calif., who suffered from metabolic conditions that put them at risk for developing dementia, Alzheimer's disease or cognitive impairment without dementia. Statins are drugs that specifically lower low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol.

Lead author Mary Haan of the University of Michigan School of Public Health said some of the risk factors for dementia include high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension.

"The bottom line is that if a person takes statins over a course of about five to seven years, it reduces the risk of dementia by half, and that's a really big change," Haan said in a statement. The study did not look at statins as a treatment for existing dementia, only as a preventative, Haan added.

Of 1,674 participants who were free of dementia at the start of the study, 27 percent took statins at some point in the study. Over the five-year follow up period, 130 participants developed dementia or cognitive impairment.

The findings are published in the journal Neurology.