Can Statins Fend Off Parkinson's Disease?

Published: Jul 25, 2013 | Updated: Jul 25, 2013

By Nancy Walsh, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Reviewed by F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE; Instructor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

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Action Points

Note that this large Chinese population study demonstrated that patients who continued their statin medication even after meeting LDL goals had a markedly reduced risk of Parkinson's disease.

Be aware that the nonrandomized nature of this study may introduce bias -- those who continue medications may engage in other healthy behaviors that reduce PD risk.

Patients who take statins to lower cholesterol may also protect themselves against Parkinson's disease, a Chinese population-based study suggested.

Compared with individuals who stopped taking statins when the low density lipoprotein target was met, those who continued on lipophilic statins had a hazard ratio of 0.42 (95% CI 0.27-0.64) for developing Parkinson's disease, according to Jou-Wei Lin, MD, PhD, of National Taiwan University in Taipei, and colleagues.

See the story:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/ParkinsonsDisease/40697?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2013-07-26&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g712038d0r&userid=712038&email=bob@cowart.com&mu_id=5874052