Statins cause harm

[rhyspeace12]

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

[lempa_nik]

Rhyspeace,

Two friendly questions: First, why do you entitle your post as referring to "Statins"? Article you linked to in Science Daily focuses on Cholestrol and nowhere mentions statins explicitly. Second, is this topic so relevant for a community of PwPs? I recall that Simvastatin has been advocated for PD, but is that the connection you have in mind? The article does not at all mention Parkinsons. All best, dumpelkin

[RobertoOcana in reply to lempa_nik]

You are 100% correct and I fell for the article. I will keep in mind for my next visit with my internist

[rhyspeace12 in reply to lempa_nik]

My husband has been doing an experiment to see if going off the statin's improves his memory and mood. I didn't know how or where to post it and just gave it a title. I'm sorry if it was confusing, but I felt the info. would be good for anyone considering their statin to be a problem. I found it very interesting that the people who had high cholesterol were actually found to live longer. So far, my husband is having his memory improving off of the stains.

The article is proving the opposite of what has been believed,and that stains are harder on Parkinson's patients, rather than helping them. I do have another one, but didn't know if it would be of interest.

[lempa_nik in reply to rhyspeace12]

Rhyspeace12,

Thanks for the clarification. Statins have long been notorious for their associated risk of negative side-effects, such as muscular weakness (including the heart, ironically), and foggy mind. I gathered that much of this is attributed to the statins' interference with the CoQ 10 in the body, a vital endogenous antioxidant for all bodily cells.

[park_bear in reply to lempa_nik]

Coincidentally the FDA just issued new warnings for statins here: fda.gov/ForConsumers/Consum...,

specifically mentioning memory loss, cognitive impairment, and muscle damage. They fail to mention that muscle damage can be severe:

journals.plos.org/plosone/a...

rheumatology.oxfordjournals...

Plus diabetes risk:

thelancet.com/journals/lanc...

So, yes, statins DO cause harm, and if there is no expected benefit for a certain population, as the originally cited article is saying, then they should NOT be taken.

[rhyspeace12]

thanks for sending that information!

[silvestrov]

I am not a statin fan because years ago my recently deceased father was put on them and became violent. Yes he eventually got PD and I also watched dopamine agonist therapy turn him into a zombie and entacapone caused him to have unnerving, uncontrollable tardive dyskinesia. Hence my reliance on herbs, vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

A while back, as was noted, simvastatin was touted to be good for PD from the following study:

Stopping Cholesterol Drugs May Be Associated with Increased Risk of Parkinson’s

aan.com/PressRoom/home/Pres...

A later study questioned these results and actually noted taking statins are a risk factor for PD:

Statins, plasma cholesterol, and risk of Parkinson's disease: a prospective study.

"Statin use may be associated with a higher PD risk, whereas higher total cholesterol may be associated with lower risk. These data are inconsistent with the hypothesis that statins are protective against PD."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/256...

Being anally retentive I read about every statin/cholesterol PD study and most (all but 1) stated PD is associated with low cholesterol. In addition the APOE-2 gene, a gene associated with low cholesterol, is more prevalent in PD patients than controls.

Higher occurrence of Parkinson's linked to low LDL cholesterol

sph.unc.edu/higher-occurren...

I am not a fan of statins for the treatment of PD because they lower CoQ10 levels in the body. CoQ10 has inconsistent clinical efficacy in the treatment of PD but taking a drug which depletes it seems absolutely crazy to me. I would be in a walker without COQ10 and cannot live without that supplement.

[rhyspeace12]

Thank you. My husband stopped taking his CoQ10. That could be a problem too.

[fwes]

An old post with content relevant to statins and PD

healthunlocked.com/parkinso...

[rhyspeace12]

My husband did go off his statin and it didn't change him one way or another, except we are gong to find out in recent blood work if his cholesterol went up. His doctor said to not worry about getting back on it unless he needs to.