Statins may prevent dementia & memory loss

H-KQGE

Dagobah Resident
Statins. Hmm.. unless i'm missing something, this is bad. http://m.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/statin_medications_may_prevent_dementia_and_memory_loss_with_longer_use_while_not_posing_any_short_term_cognition_problems

STATIN MEDICATIONS MAY PREVENT DEMENTIA AND MEMORY LOSS WITH LONGER USE, WHILE NOT POSING ANY SHORT-TERM COGNITION PROBLEMS

Release Date: 10/01/2013
Johns Hopkins researchers reviewed dozens of high-quality studies on cognitive effects
A review of dozens of studies on the use of statin medications to prevent heart attacks shows that the commonly prescribed drugs pose no threat to short-term memory, and that they may even protect against dementia when taken for more than one year. The Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted the systematic review say the results should offer more clarity and reassurance to patients and the doctors who prescribe the statin medications.

The question of whether statins can cause cognition problems has become a hot topic among cardiologists and their patients following changes on the drug labels ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February 2012, warning about memory problems with short-term statin use.

However, in their extensive review, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that statins do not affect short-term memory or cognition. In contrast, they say that when the drugs are taken for more than one year, the risk of dementia is reduced by 29 percent. Their findings are published in an online article in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings posted on October 1, 2013.

“All medications, including statins, may cause side effects, and many patients take multiple medicines that could theoretically interact with each other and cause cognitive problems,” says Kristopher Swiger, M.D., a primary author of the study. “However, our systematic review and meta-analysis of existing data found no connection between short-term statin use and memory loss or other types of cognitive dysfunction. In fact, longer-term statin use was associated with protection from dementia.”

For their study, the Johns Hopkins researchers conducted two different analyses involving a total of 41 different studies, which they narrowed down to 16 that had the most relevance. The first analysis looked at the impact of short-term statin use and cognitive function including memory, attention and problem-solving. For that analysis, they included studies that used a standard, objective measurement tool known as the Digit Symbol Substitution Test. The other assessment focused on studies in which participants took statins for more than one year to see if there was any correlation with a later diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia.

“Our goal was to provide clarity on this issue based on the best available evidence,” according to Raoul Manalac, M.D., a co-primary author of the study. “We looked at high-quality, randomized controlled trials and prospective studies that included more than 23,000 men and women with no prior history of cognitive problems. The participants in those studies were followed for up to 25 years.”

Statins reduce cholesterol levels in the blood, particularly low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is known as the “bad” form of cholesterol that can build up as plaque inside blood vessels. The drugs have been shown to reduce coronary artery disease and stroke among those at high risk as well as for those who have already been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease following a heart attack or stroke. Statins have also been shown to reduce the amount of inflammation within blood vessels and prevent the risk of blood clots.

“Because of their effect on arteries to reduce or stabilize plaque, and prevent strokes, it makes sense that statins could be protective in the brain against dementia,” according to senior author Seth Martin, M.D., a Pollin Cardiovascular Prevention Fellow with the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and the study’s senior author.

“Vascular dementia is caused by blockages in small blood vessels in the brain that prevent blood flow to certain areas. Medications such as statins that reduce plaque and inflammation in coronary arteries may also be having the same effect on blood vessels in the brain,” says Martin.

Roger Blumenthal, M.D., the Kenneth Jay Pollin Professor of Cardiology and director of the Ciccarone Center, says the findings will be reassuring to many patients. “Statins can be lifesaving medications for high-risk individuals,” says Blumenthal, “but many of our patients became concerned about taking the drugs after the FDA created labeling changes last year. This very robust analysis of the best data available should allay those concerns.”

The study did not receive any funding from industry, and the authors have no conflicts of interest. Swiger and Manalac received protected research time from the Johns Hopkins Osler internal medicine residency program to conduct this study. Martin’s work is supported by the Pollin Fellowship in Preventive Cardiology and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis endowed fellowship.

This seems like "the other side" ("big pharma") are pushing back against negative statin headlines. Maybe a new blitz on "alternative" medicine, i'm also thinking about the FDA' s proposed budget increase...
 
That's funny considering that statins have a statistical link with dementia, which makes sense since they literally are designed to kill brain cells (reduce cholesterol, which is what your brain is made of).

Sounds like spin to me.
 
Lost Spirit said:
Sounds like spin to me.

Yeah, they might be getting desperate after several studies where statins are linked with lens damage, cognitive impairment, arterial calcification (the one thing it is prescribed for) and so forth were published. Consider also this:

Two top vascular surgeons have published a damming report on statin medications.

_http://www.statinnation.net/journal/2013/9/5/vascular-surgeons-write-a-damming-report-about-statins.html

Dr Sherif Sultan, Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon, Honorary Senior Lecturer at NUI Galway, Ireland, and Dr Niamh Hynes, Clinical Lecturer In Vascular & Endovascular Surgery at Western Vascular Institute, Ireland have conducted a critical review of the benefits and risks associated with statin medications.

In summary, their paper highlights the following key points:

Not only are statin medications failing to impact on our most prevalent disease, but they are causing more harm than good.
Cholesterol is crucial for energy, immunity, fat metabolism, leptin, thyroid hormone activity, liver related synthesis, protection from stress, adrenal function, sex hormone syntheses and brain function.
Only middle aged men with coronary heart disease benefit from taking statins, but even in these cases statins may only work in the short term and should be stopped before adverse effects can take hold.
High cholesterol levels have been found to be protective in elderly and heart failure patients.
The statin industry is the utmost medical tragedy of all times.
A government report in Canada found an overestimation of benefit and underestimation of harm where statins are concerned.
Statins are associated with triple the risk of coronary artery and aortic calcification.

This is another scientific paper that should immediately stop the widespread prescription of statins, however, it has gone almost completely unnoticed. In fact, I only became aware of it because it was sent to me from my friend Clare Harris from the Stopped Our Statins support group.

You can read the full paper here.

S. Sultan and N. Hynes, "The Ugly Side of Statins. Systemic Appraisal of the Contemporary Un-Known Unknowns," Open Journal of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Vol. 3 No. 3, 2013, pp. 179-185. doi: 10.4236/ojemd.2013.33025.
 
Having been on statin drugs from 2005 till June 2013, I can attest by personal experience that getting off of these drugs has been a blessing.

I struggled with high blood pressure. They also prescribed aspirin 81mg daily with the statins.

So, you have aspirin which blocks the body's ability to control BP, high BP gets you a statin prescription, then you can take both. Likely you will need to increase the statin dosage because your BP is out of control with the dosages you were taking. I can't believe an educated person can make these claims with a clear conscience. I am fairly sure the statins were effecting my memory and ability to think clearly, in a negative way.

It seems like an actor reading a script for $.

It truly is time for a purge in this system, whatever form that may take.

Right from the start of taking these drugs I felt like my life was falling into a pit with no bottom. Frame of mind and future outlook have become much brighter now.(even in these times, because I can see changes looming) Glad to be a part of the coming event.

Bottom line....the guy is lying. Convincingly though, to people who don't know better or want their egos stroked.
 
Yup, they're getting desperate to counteract the growing amount of data leaking out into the public domain about the detriments of statins and the benefits of cholesterol. Another example of cherry picking and cooking data, no doubt.

Just do a search on SOTT and the forum for the real low down on this issue.
 
WIN 52 said:
Having been on statin drugs from 2005 till June 2013, I can attest by personal experience that getting off of these drugs has been a blessing.

I struggled with high blood pressure. They also prescribed aspirin 81mg daily with the statins.

So, you have aspirin which blocks the body's ability to control BP, high BP gets you a statin prescription, then you can take both. Likely you will need to increase the statin dosage because your BP is out of control with the dosages you were taking. I can't believe an educated person can make these claims with a clear conscience. I am fairly sure the statins were effecting my memory and ability to think clearly, in a negative way.

It seems like an actor reading a script for $.

It truly is time for a purge in this system, whatever form that may take.

Right from the start of taking these drugs I felt like my life was falling into a pit with no bottom. Frame of mind and future outlook have become much brighter now.(even in these times, because I can see changes looming) Glad to be a part of the coming event.

Bottom line....the guy is lying. Convincingly though, to people who don't know better or want their egos stroked.

I'm glad you off those statins!

It's interesting I noticed 20-30 years ago the normal BP was between 120/60 - 140/80, I always had 120/60 which considered low.

Now it's the "norm" BP is 90-120/ 60-80, or so, probably I would collapse with that low BP!

Now I'm older I have 138/80 recently and I was told by doc I have high BP, and I'm supposed to eat "low salt, lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains" :headbash:

Otherwise the doc wanted to put me on HBP meds, boy, if Big Pharma desperate to sell more drugs, it's not for me!

I told the doc about paleo diet, she never even heard of it!

After that I didn't even try to talk about KD, wasting the time!

Well, I humored her and walked out and never go back for sure, at least not for this doctor!
 
It's funny, my doctor had never heard of the Paleo diet either (and this was about a year and a half ago).

He didn't like my cholesterol levels after having stopped taking lipitor, and was very vehement when he said "if it doesn't improve I'm putting you on another statin!"

Yeah, I haven't been back.

You know, I'm getting to the point where I just don't care what the medical community has to say. I'm going to eat as healthy as I can based on what I've learned, cook as much of my own food as possible from organic and local farms, avoid the grains & other carbs etc etc etc. If that kills me, so be it, it was on my terms. I'd rather be in control of my destiny than in the medicated lap of industry, useless and fed by a tube in a hospital for the last years of my life.

Break a bone? By all means go see a doctor. But in my opinion in the last century they have delved into areas and made recommendations to our diets (and of course politics got involved) that they have either not fully researched, or have considered on such a small focus that it was meaningless. A good example is cholesterol: "High cholesterol leads to heart disease!" No it doesn't. Inflammation leads to damage to the arteries, which the cholesterol tries to repair (since that's it's job), but the continual inflammation causes the patches to be laid one atop the other, which eventually blocks the arteries.

So what causes heart disease? Cholesterol? Uh, no. Inflammation. And what causes inflammation? Carbs, sugars, grains, dairy, etc.

But as long as there's money to be made with statins, we're sure to keep hearing about how healthy that whole grain diet is!
 
A doctor recently told my mother she wanted to see her start taking statins. I sent my mom to this link - http://healthydietsandscience.blogspot.ca/ - and had her scroll down to where the right column (under Archives) starts listing articles about statins and their associated side effects; all articles from peer reviewed journals. There's 133 categories running from "Statins and Abdominal Pains" to "Statins Depression and Suicide", and every disease in between. Every category has at least one article, but many have 4 or 5. There is an astounding amount of information on the negative effects of statins gathered on this site, just by listing articles from mainstream journals.

After perusing the archives on the site for a bit, my mom decided to see a natural oriented doctor for a second opinion. He told her her cholesterol levels were fine, and that she didn't need medication at all!
 
Lost Spirit said:
You know, I'm getting to the point where I just don't care what the medical community has to say. I'm going to eat as healthy as I can based on what I've learned, cook as much of my own food as possible from organic and local farms, avoid the grains & other carbs etc etc etc. If that kills me, so be it, it was on my terms. I'd rather be in control of my destiny than in the medicated lap of industry, useless and fed by a tube in a hospital for the last years of my life.
Agree. All this is pretty terrible because doctors following the dictates of psychopaths/pathological of big pharma become the victimizers of their patients. But they are also victims of all this lies. Being that physicians in general have one of the most stressful professions out there, if one of them have heart problems coupled with a wrong diet and applies a bad therapeutic, well that is how to get a quick ticket to death. Obviously, this does not justify ignoring these dangers. Just wanted to say is that ignorance is a very cleverly sponsored by the ruling powers to harm patients and physicians alike.
They are right to worry, her business are falling by the increasing exposure of some of its "programs" (like this drugs). And at the same time people are increasingly interested in other healthy diets for humans.
 
Lost Spirit said:
You know, I'm getting to the point where I just don't care what the medical community has to say. I'm going to eat as healthy as I can based on what I've learned, cook as much of my own food as possible from organic and local farms, avoid the grains & other carbs etc etc etc. If that kills me, so be it, it was on my terms. I'd rather be in control of my destiny than in the medicated lap of industry, useless and fed by a tube in a hospital for the last years of my life.

Break a bone? By all means go see a doctor. But in my opinion in the last century they have delved into areas and made recommendations to our diets (and of course politics got involved) that they have either not fully researched, or have considered on such a small focus that it was meaningless. A good example is cholesterol: "High cholesterol leads to heart disease!" No it doesn't. Inflammation leads to damage to the arteries, which the cholesterol tries to repair (since that's it's job), but the continual inflammation causes the patches to be laid one atop the other, which eventually blocks the arteries.

So what causes heart disease? Cholesterol? Uh, no. Inflammation. And what causes inflammation? Carbs, sugars, grains, dairy, etc.

But as long as there's money to be made with statins, we're sure to keep hearing about how healthy that whole grain diet is!

Thank you for putting it this way, Lost Spirit. I feel the same. It is really sad that things have gotten so bad. The same with smoking, and any autoimmune disease. They have no idea, but they treat you like they need to SAVE you (like during the Inquisition).

And I don't buy this "study" about statins. My dad has been taking them for years now, and he IS having memory problems. He refuses to stop them because he is convinced that doctors are right. :( And he is only one among millions of others.
 
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