A team of scientist has discovered that people taking cholesterol-lowering statins are less likely to develop dementia and have memory loss than those who do not take statins. According to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, the findings of the research are "encouraging".

The study, published in the July 29 edition of Neurology, analyzed 1,674 Mexican-Americans aged 60 and over from Sacramento, California, who underwent metabolic conditions that put them at high risk for developing dementia, Alzheimer’s or cognitive impairment without dementia, stated Mary Haan, epidemiology professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and leader of the aforementioned study. High cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, overweight and hypertension are among the risk factors for developing dementia.

The findings of the study showed how people who take statins for an estimated 5-7 years, have a lower risk of dementia. More precisely, the risk may be cut by half, “and that’s a really big change,” said Haan. 25 percent of the patients took a statin, and in total 130 developed dementia. He furthermore added that statins were not used as a treatment for existing dementia, only as a way of preventing it. Statins represent a class of drugs which are used to lower cholesterol levels in people with or at risk of cardiovascular disease.

Initially, the study was funded in 1997 to examine metabolic and vascular conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, as well as their consequence on the risk of dementia, a brain disorder that seriously affects patient’s ability to carry out daily activities. Earlier findings by Haan's team of the same study group determined that particular metabolic and vascular disorders were symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. For example, people suffering from Type 2 diabetes are up to three times more susceptible to develop Alzheimer's disease.