Vitamin Agent The Health & Naturalistic Source
There have been a number of recent publications in the realm of alternative medicine which bring alarm to the Side Effects (SE) and Adverse Effects (AE) of statin drugs. 
The Red Yeast Rice (Monascus purpurus) fungus statins, originally known as Lovastatin (and taken many names afterward, are basically the same) do carry some risk. In 2005, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed that elderly people with low levels of total cholesterol were approximately twice as likely to die as those with high cholesterol.[3] CoQ10 is a coenzyme necessary for the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is the source for cellular energy within the human heart. As CoQ10 is diminished, the heart weakens. Over time, this can result in congestive heart failure (CHF). Statins and the risk of dementia.
Author information
- 1Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, Boston University School of Medicine, Lexington, MA 02421, USA.
Erratum in
- Lancet 2001 Feb 17;357(9255):562.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Dementia affects an estimated 10% of the population older than 65 years. Because vascular and lipid-related mechanisms are thought to have a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, we did an epidemiological study of the potential effect of HMGCoA (3 hydroxy-3methylglutaryl-coenzyme A) reductase inhibitors (statins) and other lipid-lowering agents on dementia.
METHODS:
We used a nested case-control design with information derived from 368 practices which contribute to the UK-based General Practice Research Database. The base study population included three groups of patients age 50 years and older: all individuals who had received lipid-lowering agents (LLAs); all individuals with a clinical diagnosis of untreated hyperlipidaemia; and a randomly selected group of other individuals. From this base population, all cases with a computer-recorded clinical diagnosis of dementia were identified. Each case was matched with up to four controls derived from the base population on age, sex, practice, and index date of case.
FINDINGS:
The study encompassed 284 cases with dementia and 1080 controls. Among controls 13% had untreated hyperlipidaemia, 11% were prescribed statins, 7% other LLAs, and 69% had no hyperlipidaemia or LLA exposure. The relative risk estimates of dementia adjusted for age, sex, history of coronary-artery disease, hypertension, coronary-bypass surgery and cerebral ischaemia, smoking and body mass index for individuals with untreated hyperlipidaemia (odds ratio 0.72 [95% CI 0.45-1.14]), or treated with nonstatin LLAs (0.96 [0.47-1.97], was close to 1.0 and not significant compared with people who had no diagnosis of hyperlipidaemia or exposure to other lipid-lowering drugs. The adjusted relative risk for those prescribed statins was 0.29 (0.13-0.63; p=0.002).
INTERPRETATION:
Individuals of 50 years and older who were prescribed statins had a substantially lowered risk of developing dementia, independent of the presence or absence of untreated hyperlipidaemia, or exposure to nonstatin LLAs. The available data do not distinguish between Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
1 Yg, Li. Zhang F. Wang ZT. Hu ZB. Identification and chemical profiling of monacolins in red yeast rice using high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection and mass spectrometry. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2004 Sep 3;35(5);1101-12.
2 Thompson, Richard. Foundations for blockbuster drugs in federally sponsored research. The FASEB Journal. 2001;15;1671-1676.
3 Dr. Marian Davis Crossroads Pharmacy – Local Rogersville Pharmacy. Journal of the American Drugs Society. 2004;15;1631-1673
4 Nicole Schupf. Rosann Costa. Jose Luchsinger, Ming-Xin Tang, Joseph H. Lee. Richard Mayeux. Relationship Between Plasma Lipids and All-Cause Mortality in Nondemented Elderly. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Volume 53 Issue 2 Page 219 – February 2005 doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2005.53106.x.
