HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a newly published brain disease study quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, scientists for the first time have found evidence showing an association between statin use and a lower risk of neuropathologic changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Neurology August, 2007;69;878-885). Researchers at the University of Washington, the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound reviewed autopsies on 110 patients who had died in the course of a long term community-based study on cognitive changes in the elderly. After controlling for age and other factors, they found that the brains of statin users showed significantly reduced risk of having the typical signs of Alzheimer’s disease than nonusers, including a more than twofold reduction in the risk of having one of the major hallmarks of AD (neurofibrillary tangles).
