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Statins May Prevent Memory Loss

By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 28, 2005

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Elderly women who use statin drugs to lower their cholesterol levels may have better memories and learning abilities than their peers, according to an article published in the Archives of Neurology.

Doctors studied about 1,000 women aged 70. Nearly all of them had some form of heart disease and 56 percent used cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Women who used statins had a 33 percent lower risk of memory and learning problems than those who did not.

Apparently, statins like Lipitor and Zocor reduce the bad cholesterols or LDLs and that helps keep arteries open. In this study, women with high LDL levels were twice as likely to develop memory and thinking problems than the others.

Women whose LDLs stayed the same or went down had a 4 percent reduction in memory and thinking problems compared to women whose levels went up.

In other words, statins lower LDLs and that helps the mind.

While this result may not apply to women without heart trouble or to men, elderly women high cholesterol or heart disease should talk to their doctors about statins.

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