ZOCOR affects risk for Alzheimer's & Parkinson's
 

I switched from Lipitor to Zocor because... (as stated below)

"In patients over age 64, those who took Zocor were 54% less likely to get Alzheimer's disease and 49% less likely to get Parkinson's disease than were matched patients not taking statin drugs.

Those who took Lipitor were 9% less likely to get Alzheimer's disease, a finding that was not statistically significant. Lipitor did not affect Parkinson's disease risk.

jackD (Braindead)



1: BMC Med. 2007 Jul 19;5:20.

Simvastatin is associated with a reduced incidence of dementia and Parkinson's disease.

Wolozin B, Wang SW, Li NC, Lee A, Lee TA, Kazis LE.
Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. bwolozin@bu.edu

BACKGROUND: Statins are a class of medications that reduce cholesterol by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. Whether statins can benefit patients with dementia remains unclear because of conflicting results. We hypothesized that some of the confusion in the literature might arise from differences in efficacy of different statins. We used a large database to compare the action of several different statins to investigate whether some statins might be differentially associated with a reduction in the incidence of dementia and Parkinson's disease.

METHODS: We analyzed data from the decision support system of the US Veterans Affairs database, which contains diagnostic, medication and demographic information on 4.5 million subjects. The association of lovastatin, simvastatin and atorvastatin with dementia was examined with Cox proportional hazard models for subjects taking statins compared with subjects taking cardiovascular medications other than statins, after adjusting for covariates associated with dementia or Parkinson's disease.

RESULTS: We observed that simvastatin is associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of dementia in subjects > or =65 years, using any of three models. The first model incorporated adjustment for age, the second model included adjusted for three known risk factors for dementia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease or diabetes, and the third model incorporated adjustment for the Charlson index, which is an index that provides a broad assessment of chronic disease. Data were obtained for over 700,000 subjects taking simvastatin and over 50,000 subjects taking atorvastatin who were aged >64 years. Using model 3, the hazard ratio for incident dementia for simvastatin and atorvastatin are 0.46 (CI 0.44-0.48, p < 0.0001) and 0.91 (CI 0.80-1.02, p = 0.11), respectively. Lovastatin was not associated with a reduction in the incidence of dementia. Simvastatin also exhibited a reduced hazard ratio for newly acquired Parkinson's disease (HR 0.51, CI 0.4-0.55, p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION: Simvastatin is associated with a strong reduction in the incidence of dementia and Parkinson's disease, whereas atorvastatin is associated with a modest reduction in incident dementia and Parkinson's disease, which shows only a trend towards significance.

PMID: 17640385 [PubMed - in process]


Zocor vs. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

Cholesterol Drug Zocor May Lower Risk of Both Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Diseases

By Daniel J. DeNoon

WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
July 18, 2007 -- Zocor -- but not sister cholesterol-lowering drugs Lipitor or Mevacor -- may cut the risk of both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, a new study suggests.

It's not the first time that the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have been linked to Alzheimer's disease. A small clinical trial in 2005 suggested that Lipitor might improve mental function in people with early Alzheimer's disease.

Both Lipitor and Zocor are in clinical trials to see whether they really do help people with Alzheimer's disease. But now there's compelling evidence that Zocor may actually prevent not only Alzheimer's disease, but Parkinson's disease, too.

The provocative new data come from Boston University researcher Benjamin Wolozin, MD, and colleagues.

"Many people are looking at whether statins might prevent the progression of dementia in people with Alzheimer's disease," Wolozin tells WebMD. "But a lot of people in the field think that if you start statin treatment at the time you already have the disease, it might be the wrong time. It might be nice to talk about how to prevent the disease."

To see whether taking statins had any effect on Alzheimer's disease, Wolozin's team used the immense U.S. Veterans Affairs database, with detailed information on 4.5 million patients. Some 727,000 of these patients took Zocor, about 54,000 took Lipitor, and about 54,000 took Mevacor.
In patients over age 64, those who took Zocor were 54% less likely to get Alzheimer's disease and 49% less likely to get Parkinson's disease than were matched patients not taking statin drugs.

Those who took Lipitor were 9% less likely to get Alzheimer's disease, a finding that was not statistically significant. Lipitor did not affect Parkinson's disease risk.

Mevacor had no effect on risk of either Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease.

D. Larry Sparks, PhD, director of the Roberts Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., is involved in clinical trials of statins for Alzheimer's disease but was not involved in the Wolozin study.

"This study keeps alive the idea that statins may be of benefit in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and maybe even in mild cognitive impairment," Sparks tells WebMD. "But the most important part is that this addresses the role of cholesterol-lowering medications as a way to combat Parkinson's disease."

The study does not offer answers to the question of why Zocor seems to work better than Lipitor in preventing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Is it time to start taking Zocor to prevent neurodegenerative diseases? Wolozin says people should take statins only to lower high cholesterol levels.
"If your parents got Alzheimer's disease and you have high cholesterol, you might want to talk with your doctor about whether you should take Zocor or Lipitor," Wolozin says. "If your parents don't have Alzheimer's disease, but, say, your dad had a heart attack, you should probably take Lipitor, because it is somewhat better at preventing some of the [problems ] associated with heart disease. You have to look at your own personal risk factors."
Proof of whether statins affect risk of Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease can come only from controlled clinical trials. But as such trials would be extremely lengthy and expensive, Wolozin doubts they will be undertaken.
Help may come from ongoing trials looking at whether Lipitor or Zocor can help people who already have Alzheimer's disease. Those trials are nearly over; results are expected next year.
The Wolozin study appears in the July issue of the online journal BioMed Central Medicine.

One can find studies that are more recent....

like this one:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20687089

This reminds me of the 20 yrs of positive effects of estrogen on postmenopausal women.... Which were results from drug company studies. The European ones at the time, were much different. In the end one large study here independent of the drug companies called the HERS study... ended prematurely due to the deaths of women using estrogen.

One can find studies on anything...but the sum total of people who have been injured keeps rising concerning this topic. Medical studies always go back and forth, and the reasons for this are hard to pin down. It happens on every topic.

The facts that statins injure or damage mitochondria, and also
prevent remyelination in the CNS are rather new, and disturbing IMO.

Simvastatin is lipophilic and enters the brain easily. Lipitor is mixed. And lovostatin and pravastatin are less likely to cause CNS side effects.

mrsD this was the greatest medical lecture I have seen in a very long time. It was so information (long, yes) but not boring. It made so much sense it was scary.

Fructose is a toxin, a poison. If you give you child a can of coke it is the same as giving him a beer, without the buzz. He will become obese, his Liver will suffer, and many diseases will be added to his list by the time he is a teenager. Thank you for this teaching video. :)

My triglyceride level is not high thank goodness.

JackD, thanks for the info. Remember XO from the original BT? He is another who takes statins, and like you has done a lot of research into MS and statins and other meds.

I'm on two cholesterol drugs-Lescol and Zetia. Alone, they don't reduce my number much, but together they do an okay job.
I tried Lipitor, Crestor, and is it Vitorin? They all made my legs go goofy; the muscles got bad.
My mom, dad and sis all had severe heart attacks-my dad died from his. Of course, they all smoked like chimneys and were sedentery and ate horribly. But I am overweight, so the total number is a warning sign, IMO.

Just make sure you pay attention to the side effects and note them/call dr. with the info.

Mrs. Doubtfyre, when you say

I wondered where the information came from.

My daughter died of a ruptured brain aneurysm and I've been watching for evidence that a tendency for aneurysms might run in families. So far I haven't found any.

In fact, I found this:

http://www.aneurysm-stroke.com/ic-aneurysm.php#Q3

ewizabeth, I'm back on Lipitor but take a minimal amount--10mg twice a week.

I saw it stated on the Discovery show, Dr. G. (the reality autopsy show).

I was thinking...cerebral.
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/u...neurysm-basics

But the others may still be inherited to some extent like Marfan's is, for example. Weaker than normal artery walls for some reason.
This is a defect in collagen production. Defects in collagen production are mostly genetic too.
Genetic issues would be more difficult to control, than say blood pressure that is untreated, etc.

http://www.inheritedhealth.com/condition/Aneurysm/39

Prevention VRS Treatment
 

I want to point out something important related to both our posting on Zocor.

My posting related to the PREVENTION of getting Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease as summarized from the study below.

ONLY ONE STATIN *ZOCOR* WAS FOUND TO BE TRUELY EFFECTIVE.

Your referenced study related to TREATMENT, using "Statins for the treatment of dementia."

It is my contention that ZOCOR is GREAT for PREVENTION but NOT GREAT for TREATMENT as your referenced study pointed out.

Also your statement "that One can find studies on anything" is not 100% accurate.

I still have not found the one on pink elephants.

Hyperbole is usefull sometimes but I do not think it fits into this kind of "informative dialogue" on a serious medical contition like MS.


jackD

Wiz...Jim takes Zocor, several years now, and is doing just fine.

Well, we each have our own opinion.

I have learned that studies may be not what we think they are, over the years.

What is very disturbing about lipophilic statins, is they go into the brain and nerves. The new physiological data showing mitochondrial damage and damage to remyelination of CNS fibers by them, is alarming, IMO.
It will take many years of confirmation to illustrate more in this regard. I personally would not take that chance given what we know today.

Here is an interesting NEW point of view about Alzheimer's that just came out:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread145988.html

It will be interesting to see if this pans out over time.

And being the skeptic I am, I tend to think the positive "studies" about statins continue to be funded by the drug companies.
That is the way it has been with 2 other blockbuster products so far in the past 20 yrs.