A Canadian study published in the latest issue of "Archives of Neurology" adds further weight to the observation that statins, a family of drugs indicated for reducing cholesterol levels, also appear to protect against Alzheimer’s disease and other types. of dementia.
The new research, signed by scientists from the University of Halifax, evaluated 1,315 patients over 65 years of age, included in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging between 1991 and 1996, who were taking lipid-lowering medication. According to the results, this type of drugs is associated with a reduction in the risk of dementia close to 75%.
However, the authors point out that the protective effect is only observed in individuals under 80 years of age, although they believe that the explanation may lie in the fact that these people began treatment when they had already begun to develop dementia.
Previous studies had already mentioned that statins seemed to exert this preventive effect, although the new study is the first to point out that other families of lipid-lowering agents may also have this benefit.
Theories, based on animal studies, indicate that statins may help prevent the formation of amyloid deposits in the brain, characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. Another possibility is that these drugs prevent dementia by reducing inflammation in the brain.
