A substantial and important British research that studied the information of 1.8 million people, questioned how much the high cholesterol or le statins could increase the risk of being diagnosed with dementia.
The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal The Lancet Healthy Longevity.
High cholesterol, statins, and the risk of dementia – here’s what the research revealed
Many individuals discontinue drug therapies for high cholesterol treatment because of the fear of disabling side effects. More than 600,000 people in Norway take prescription cholesterol-lowering drugs. Most of these drugs are called statins. But not all of these patients actually take their medications.
The Professor is primary Kjetil Retterstøl he has often heard that patients have stopped taking statins without first consulting their doctor: “Many fear side effects because they read media reports that scare them. Some are concerned about how the drugs will affect their mental health if they take them for an extended period of time.
Others believe statins are the cause of muscle pain and sleep problems. These symptoms may be due to side effects, but these patients are also likely to be at an age where health problems of this type are more likely to arise, ”said Professor Retterstøl fromInstitute of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Oslo.
A question many people ask themselves is: Can taking statins over the long term increase the risk of other ailments such as dementia? But what is associated with what? Is it the cholesterol level, statins or an unhealthy lifestyle that lead to an increased risk of dementia? The UK study of 1.8 million people concluded that high cholesterol may be linked to an increased risk of developing dementia.
A new research, Retterstøl together His team of collaborators have obtained results different from those of British scientists. In his opinion, neither high cholesterol nor statins can explain an increased risk of developing dementia. The real reason could be that lifestyle habits lead to high cholesterol levels.
Their research involved a more in-depth study of the health of people with hereditary high cholesterol. The high cholesterol levels of these patients is not caused by their lifestyle and, in general, they do not eat unhealthy but it is due to their genetics. The scholars also took into consideration whether study participants were taking a high or low dose of statins.
“In Norway, we have good health records to which we can link our research data. We were then able to look at the data from over 3,500 people with inherited high cholesterol and find out how many of them were diagnosed with dementia. We followed this group for over 10 years, but found no increased risk of dementia compared to our control group of nearly 70,000 individuals. We found no difference between those taking a high or low dose of statins, ”Retterstøl added.
High cholesterol is often referred to as a silent killer because it does not manifest itself through symptoms. Retterstøl specified that the problem with taking statins is that the patient will not notice any physical improvement. Likewise, they don’t notice any difference if they stop taking the medicine. But the absence of the medicine means that harmful processes can continue unnoticed in the body and cholesterol plaque builds up in the arteries, causing a possible heart attack or stroke.
“One third of the population dies of cardiovascular disease and is particularly sad when young people are affected. If you decide to postpone taking statins, the benefit will be less when you start taking them. Nobody wants to take the pills, but doing so is an investment in your future in good health, ”explained the Professor.
If a patient is taking statins and experiences muscle pain or difficulty sleeping, Retterstøl has the following advice: “Do not stop taking statins without first talking to your doctor. Often in these cases, we ask the patient to stop taking the statins for a short time to check if the drug is really the source of the side effect. If the patient then tells us that there is improvement, we ask them to resume taking the medicine for a period to see if the symptoms recur. If this is the case, the type and dosage of the statins can be changed. “
The team of scientists behind the study is made up of researchers from Oslo University Hospital, the University of Bergen, the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and the University of Oslo.
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