Regular Use Of Statins May Be Associated With Reduced Risk For Alzheimer’s, Study Suggests.
ABC World News Tonight (12/12, Story 10, 0:20, Muir) reported, “A new study shows that high use of cholesterol lowering statins is now tied to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s for patients over the age of 65.”
CNN (12/12, Howard) reports that research published online Dec. 12 in JAMA Neurology suggests “regular use of statins is associated with a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s.” The research “involved Medicare data on 399,979 statin users.” Investigators “found that those who were exposed to higher levels of statins… were 10% less likely to have an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis in each of the subsequent five years than those with lower statin exposure.”
HealthDay (12/12) reports that researchers found, however, that “it may depend on the specific statin, and the gender and race or ethnicity of the person taking it.” For instance, “black men appeared to gain no benefit from taking any statin, while white women may lower their risk regardless of which statin they take, the researchers said.”
