Can Statins Fend Off Parkinson's Disease?

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.

Specifically, the lowest risks were for patients taking simvastatin (HR 0.23, 95% CI 0.07-0.73) or atorvastatin (HR 0.33, 95% CI 0.17-0.65), the researchers reported in the July 30 Neurology.

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