Always Believing What We Are Told May Not Be So Good!

Through the years, we have been told that taking specific medications may help us prevent disease and live longer. Many times, local and national news media present this as fact. Many health care providers also buy into the scientific findings without question and suddenly insist that all follow the new recommendations. In the recent past, there has been some interesting information released about a very popular class of drugs called statins. Many of you may be taking them in an attempt to lower your cholesterol and prevent some cardiovascular event.^1,2 As of a few years ago, about 20% of adults under age 60 and 50% of adults age 75 and over were taking them.³ Within the last year, the effectiveness of these drugs in reducing cardiovascular events and death has been questioned, while other major effects of the medications have been discovered.⁴ It has been shown that statin drugs are associated with higher levels of dementia, diabetes, and, recently, death from COVID-19 infection. 

The effect of statins on dementia has been inconclusive until recently. In May, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine published a study of 303 patients⁵ with low to moderate cholesterol levels and early mild cognitive impairment taking lipophilic statins (ie. atorvastatin, simvastatin, fluvastatin, and lovastatin). After 8 years of treatment and follow-up, these patients had more than double the occurrence of dementia compared with patients not taking these statins. They⁵ also noted that there was significant loss of metabolism in the part of the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease in those taking the lipophilic statins compared with those taking other statins or no statins. Zhou et al⁶ suggested that lowering cholesterol levels may be associated with cerebral atrophy and thus dementia, and high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol may be beneficial to neurons to keep them functioning.

A 2019 study by Zigmont et al⁷ showed an association between statins of any class and the new onset of diabetes. In a study of patients who were non-diabetic, those taking statins were more than twice as likely to develop diabetes than those who were not taking them. If the patients took the medication for more than 2 years, the risk of developing diabetes was 3 times greater.  

Another major problem is the recent association of increased death from COVID-19 infections in certain patients taking statin medications.⁸ In a study of 2449 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 infections, the 7-day and 28-day mortality rates were significantly higher in the patients taking statins than in those not taking statins and in patients without diabetes.⁸ 

Maybe all we read should not be completely believed, even when outcomes are pronounced using meta-analyses or Cochrane Reviews. I encourage everyone to do their own research to find the truth about any treatment.