Sunday, March 24, 2024
HomeExclusiveDoes Cholesterol Medicine Cause Dementia

Does Cholesterol Medicine Cause Dementia

The 5 Underlying Causes Of Heart Disease

Cholesterol Meds DOUBLE Your Dementia Risk (Protect Your Brain!) 2021

You may be wondering, If high cholesterol is not the underlying cause of heart disease, what is?

Jonny Bowden, PhD, and Stephen Sinatra, MD, authors of The Great Cholesterol Myth, discovered the five worst culprits proven to contribute to heart disease.

Chronic Inflammation

Free Radicals

Free radicals are unattached oxygen molecules that;attack your cells in much the same way that oxygen attacks metal, causing it to rust.

They also attack LDL cholesterol transforming it from large to small LDL particles.

Stress

The stress hormone cortisol contributes to heart disease by increasing triglycerides and blood pressure, two common risk factors.

Stress also contributes to plaque deposits in the arteries.;

Sugar

A 15-year study found there to be a strong correlation between sugar consumption and death from heart disease.

Sugar promotes inflammation, raises blood pressure, and stimulates the liver to dump harmful fats into the bloodstream.

Trans Fats

Trans fats are unhealthy fats found in processed foods.;

They increase bad cholesterol, decrease good cholesterol, increase inflammation, and raise triglyceride levels.

What Are The Symptoms Of Vascular Dementia

The symptoms of vascular dementia depend on the location and amount of brain tissue involved. Vascular dementia symptoms may appear suddenly after a stroke, or gradually over time. Symptoms may get worse after another stroke, a heart attack, or major surgery. These are signs and symptoms of vascular dementia

  • Increased trouble carrying out normal daily activities because of problems with concentration, communication, or inability to carry out instructions
  • Memory problems, although short-term memory may not be affected
  • Confusion, which may increase at night
  • Stroke symptoms, such as sudden weakness and trouble;with speech
  • Personality changes
  • Mood changes, such as depression or irritability
  • Stride changes when walking too fast, shuffling steps
  • Problems with movement and/or balance
  • Urinary problems, such as urgency or incontinence
  • Tremors

These Common Drugs May Increase Dementia Risk

A common class of drugs that doctors prescribe for a number of conditions from bladder problems to Parkinsons disease and depression may increase a persons risk of dementia, a large new study concludes.

New research by scientists from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom has analyzed the link between a certain class of drugs and the risk of dementia.

The drugs in question, called anticholinergics, work by inhibiting a chemical messenger called acetylcholine.

Their effect is to help relax or contract muscles, and doctors can prescribe them to help treat bladder conditions, gastrointestinal problems, and some of the symptoms of Parkinsons disease.

In their new study, which looked at data from tens of thousands of participants, the researchers concluded that anticholinergics may increase a persons risk of developing dementia.

The National Institute for Health Research funded this study, and the scientists published their findings yesterday in

Also Check: Is Bone Broth Good For High Cholesterol Patients

The Link Between Statins And Memory Loss

While statin users have reported memory loss to the FDA, studies havent found evidence to support these claims. Research has actually suggested the opposite that statins may help prevent Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia.

In a 2013 review, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine looked at 41 different studies on statins to see if there was a link between taking the medication and memory loss. Combined, the studies followed 23,000 men and women with no history of memory problems for up to 25 years.

The researchers found no evidence that using statins caused memory loss or dementia. In fact, there was some evidence that long-term statin use may protect against dementia.

Scientists believe this is because certain types of dementia are caused by small blockages in blood vessels that carry blood to the brain. Statins may help to reduce these blockages.

There remains some uncertainty about whether statins affect memory.

A 2015 study found that a small group of patients taking statins experienced amnesia. However, that finding may have been insignificant. The percentage of people taking statins who reported memory issues wasnt much different from those taking other cholesterol-lowering medications.

Like most medications, statins do have side effects. Other reported risks and side effects include:

  • muscle pain and weakness

Is There A Link Between Dementia And Cholesterol

Cholesterol lowering drugs not linked to dementia

Without this, people would not be able to produce hormones or digest food.

We can describe cholesterol as a waxy-like fatty substance that the liver produces.

It is also present in some foods. Cholesterol circulates through the blood-stream in carries known as lipoproteins made of proteins and fats.

Even though the fatty substance is beneficial, too much cholesterol in the blood can harm vascular and heart health.

Recommended Reading: Cholesterol In Potatoes

An Almost 50% Increase In Risk

For their study, lead researcher Prof. Carol Coupland and team analyzed the medical records of 58,769 people with dementia and 225,574 people without dementia. They were all 55 years old or above at baseline.

Among those with dementia, 63% were women and the average age was 82. For each person with dementia, the researchers found five control matches of the same age and sex and who attended the same general practice to receive medical care.

Prof. Coupland and colleagues sourced the data from the QResearch database and looked at medical records from between January 1, 2004 and January 31, 2016.

The researchers found that anticholinergic drugs in general were associated with a higher risk of dementia. More specifically, however, anticholinergic antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs, anti-Parkinsons drugs, bladder drugs, and epilepsy drugs were associated with the highest increase in risk.

Among these, the most frequently prescribed drugs were antidepressants, anti-vertigo drugs, and bladder antimuscarinic drugs .

These results remained even after the researchers controlled for confounding variables , including body mass index , smoking status, alcohol use, cardiovascular problems, and the use of other medication, such as antihypertensive drugs.

This study provides further evidence that doctors should be careful when prescribing certain drugs that have anticholinergic properties, explains study co-author Prof. Tom Dening.

Avoid These Five Medications That Cause Dementia For Better Mental Health

Illnesses that can bring about dementia, like Alzheimers disease and others, arent just devastating for the affected individual. People who care about these patients suffer alongside them! While doctors may tout various drugs that can supposedly correct dementia, no effective treatment is available for most forms of this illness. The best that they can do, for instance in the case of Alzheimers disease, is slow down the cognitive deterioration marginally. Most affected individuals keep popping these pills without being certain of any improvement!

Additionally, the number of cases of;dementia;hasreached a new high and will continue to do so in the coming years. Therefore,if we want to help ourselves and the ones we care about, we need to find out asmuch as we can about the disorder and its treatment methods. We also need tocome up with preventive measures, and if those fail, then better treatments.

However, research has shown that somedrugs can increase the risk of developing dementia in a person. In fact, thenames on that list include some of the medicines we commonly use.

Interested in carrying out your research? Start by looking at these studies!

Recommended Reading: Is Beef Bone Marrow High In Cholesterol

Dangers Of Statin Drugs: What You Havent Been Told About Popular Cholesterol

Hypercholesterolemia is the health issue of the 21st century. It is actually an invented disease, a problem that emerged when health professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood. High cholesterol exhibits no outward signsunlike other conditions of the blood, such as diabetes or anemia, diseases that manifest telltale symptoms like thirst or weaknesshypercholesterolemia requires the services of a physician to detect its presence. Many people who feel perfectly healthy suffer from high cholesterolin fact, feeling good is actually a symptom of high cholesterol!

Doctors who treat this new disease must first convince their patients that they are sick and need to take one or more expensive drugs for the rest of their lives, drugs that require regular checkups and blood tests. But such doctors do not work in a vacuumtheir efforts to convert healthy people into patients are bolstered by the full weight of the US government, the media and the medical establishment, agencies that have worked in concert to disseminate the cholesterol dogma and convince the population that high cholesterol is the forerunner of heart disease and possibly other diseases as well.

The drugs that doctors use to treat the new disease are called statinssold under a variety of names including Lipitor , Zocor , Mevacor and Pravachol .

It’s Not Dementia It’s Your Heart Medication: Cholesterol Drugs And Memory

Dementia or Cholesterol Medication

Why cholesterol drugs might affect memory

ONE DAY IN 1999, Duane Graveline, then a 68-year-old former NASA astronaut, returned home from his morning walk in Merritt Island, Fla., and could not remember where he was. His wife stepped outside, and he greeted her as a stranger. When Gravelines memory returned some six hours later in the hospital, he racked his brain to figure out what might have caused this terrifying bout of amnesia. Only one thing came to mind: he had recently started taking the statin drug Lipitor.

Cholesterol-lowering statins such as Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor are the most widely prescribed medications in the world, and they are credited with saving the lives of many heart disease patients. But recently a small number of users have voiced concerns that the drugs elicit unexpected cognitive side effects, such as memory loss, fuzzy thinking and learning difficulties. Hundreds of people have registered complaints with MedWatch, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations adverse drug reaction database, but few studies have been done and the results are inconclusive. Nevertheless, many experts are starting to believe that a small percentage of the population is at risk, and they are calling for increased public awareness of the possible cognitive side effects of statinssymptoms that may be misdiagnosed as dementia in the aging patients who take them.

doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind0910-14

Recommended Reading: Does Tuna Have Good Or Bad Cholesterol

Key Points About Vascular Dementia

  • Vascular dementia is a disorder characterized by damaged brain tissue due to a lack of blood flow. Causes can include blood clots, ruptured blood vessels, or narrowing or hardening of blood vessels that supply the brain.
  • Symptoms can include problems with memory and concentration, confusion, changes in personality and behavior, loss of speech and language skills, and sometimes physical symptoms such as weakness or tremors.
  • Vascular dementia tends to progress over time. Treatments can’t cure the disease, but lifestyle changes and medicines to treat underlying causes might help slow its progress.
  • Surgical procedures to improve blood flow to the brain can also be helpful. Other medicines might slow the progression of dementia or help with some of the symptoms it can cause.
  • A person;with;vascular dementia may eventually need full-time nursing care or to stay in a long-term care facility.

Medications That Block The Effects Of Acetylcholine

Among the best-recognized cognitively dangerous medications are those with anticholinergic properties. This means that the medications block the effect of acetylcholine, an important brain chemical and neurotransmitter that becomes less plentiful in the aging brain. These medications have an impact on brain cells by occupying its receptor molecules, and can help people gain relief from symptoms of insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, or several other medical conditions. Also, many medications valued for their other effects have incidental anticholinergic properties. Among the clinically significant anticholinergic medications are medications such as tolteridine, often used to treat urinary incontinence. In addition, some antidepressants , antipsychotics, cardiac medications, antispasmodics, antivertigo medications, and antiparkinsonian medications have anticholinergic effects.

Unfortunately, the undesired consequences of anticholinergic medications can be serious. Dry mouth, dry eyes, constipation, or urinary retention may occur. The toxic effects of anticholinergic medications on the brain include confusion, memory disturbance, agitation, and even delirium.

You May Like: Does Wine Cause High Cholesterol

Recommendation For Future Research

A substantial number of studies have been published on statin use and its associated dementia risk over the past few years. Despite this large number of publications, there is room for improvement to our understanding of the probable biological mechanisms. To address these issues, we should:

  • Conduct more high-quality longitudinal studies with longer follow-up periods, which include both new and chronic statins users. Such studies would help to reduce selection bias and potential confounding variables.

  • The biological causal mechanisms between statin use and dementia risk reduction are not well established. Therefore, we need more translational research as well as clinical studies to understand the fundamental biological causes, which may explain the observed association.

  • We need to better measure the levels of exposure to potential confounding variables, for example, comedication medication exposure, dose, duration, and date of initiating . Additionally, information about comorbidity chronicity, severity, and treatment requirement would be useful.

  • Statins Use And Dementia Risk

    What Does It Matter If You Have High Cholesterol?

    Thirty-one eligible studies including 47 independent reports investigated the association between statins use and dementia risk. Compared with no statins use, statins use was associated with dementia risk decrement .3). Furthermore, statins use was significantly associated with dementia risk decrement in female 3) and male .3). In addition, statins use was significantly associated with dementia risk decrement in Caucasia 3) and male .

    Don’t Miss: How Much Cholesterol In Potatoes

    Does High Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease

    The reason youve been told to lower your cholesterol is to prevent heart disease.

    We know that heart disease is a killer.

    Its the number one cause of death in industrialized nations.

    For heart health, conventional wisdom tells us to eat a low-fat diet, avoid saturated fat, and keep our cholesterol level low.

    But consider these facts:

    • Of all the people who are hospitalized for a heart attack, only 25% of them have high cholesterol.
    • The other 75% have normal cholesterol. ;

    Clearly, high cholesterol is not;the risk factor weve been led to believe.

    Do Statins Increase Or Decrease Alzheimers Risk

    Is it possible for a medication both to increase and to decrease dementia risk? In the case of statins, this can appear to be true. Overall, the beneficial effects of statins seem to outweigh their small risk of interfering with cognitive functioning, but we cant ignore the many reports of memory impairment associated with these medications. How can this be? There is evidence both for statin-associated brain protection and for statin-associated cognitive interferenceand there is a credible explanation.

    Recommended Reading: Shrimp Cholesterol

    A New Role For Statins: Lower Dementia Risk

    Dementia, memory problems, women’s health

    If youre considering taking a statin drugor you are on one alreadyyou may have questions. These drugs are very good at lowering cholesterol and can reduce the risk of dying from heart disease.

    But there have been reports of memory problems with the medications. In 2012, the FDA updated its safety information for statins to include memory loss and confusion as possible side effects. Some people fear that statin drugs can increase the risk for Alzheimers disease and other kinds of dementia.

    The latest news should put these fears to rest. It comes from a new study in the journal Neuroepidemiology. It included 30 other large studies and looked at more than 9 million people. The research found that statins did not increase the risk of dementia. In fact these medications it. So taking a statin may help both your heart and your mind.

    Previous research showed similar results. In a 2013 study, Johns Hopkins researchers looked at 41 studies that monitored 23,000 people for memory problems for up to 25 years. The result? There was no evidence that statins caused dementia and some evidence that they prevented memory loss.

    Doctors arent sure how statins might protect the brain. They may help the same way that they help the blood vessels that feed the heartby reducing inflammation and the buildup of plaque that prevents blood from flowing. Some forms of dementia are caused by similar blockages in the blood vessels of the brain.

    Understanding Cholesterol In The Brain

    Atorvastatin and Dementia: Do atorvastatin and other statins cause dementia and memory loss?

    Researchers are also interested in cholesterol in the brain, as this substance and the way that it is processed are very important for the health of brain cells, and may be affected in dementia. For example, one of the common genes that increase the risk of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease APOE4 plays a role in the processing and use of cholesterol and other fats. Understanding any differences may lead to clues about changes in the brain that cause dementia, and things that we could tackle with treatments.

    Changes with cholesterol processing in the brain may not be related to the levels of cholesterol in the blood. More research is needed to better understand this relationship and what it can tell us.

    Also Check: Are Baked Potatoes High In Cholesterol

    What Causes Vascular Dementia

    Vascular dementia is caused by a lack of blood flow to a part of the brain. Blood flow may be decreased or interrupted by:

    • Blood clots
    • Bleeding because of a ruptured blood vessel
    • Damage to a blood vessel from atherosclerosis, infection, high blood pressure, or other causes, such as an autoimmune disorder

    CADASIL is a genetic disorder that generally leads to dementia of the vascular type. One parent with the gene for CADASIL passes it on to a child, which makes it an autosomal-dominant inheritance disorder. It affects the blood vessels in the white matter of the brain. Symptoms, such as migraine headaches, seizures, and severe depression, generally start when a person is in his or her mid-30s; but, symptoms may not appear until later in life.

    Statins And Memory Loss: Is There A Link

    Statins and memory loss

    Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for high cholesterol in the United States. However, recently there have been concerns over their side effects. Some statin users have reported that they experienced memory loss while taking the medication.

    Read Also: Bone Marrow Cholesterol

    RELATED ARTICLES

    Most Popular