Statins can reduce dementia risk by up to 15%, long-term study suggests

The cholesterol-busting drugs are more effective the earlier in life they are taken, 15-year research project indicates Statins can lower the risk of dementia by 15%, and the earlier in life they are taken the higher the chances of avoiding the disease, a 15-year study suggests. The number of people living with dementia globally is forecast to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050. But experts believe almost half of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed. Now research presented in Munich at the world’s largest heart conference suggests that the cholesterol-busting drugs could dramatically reduce the risk of people developing dementia. In the largest study of its kind, more than 132,000 people in Denmark were tracked by researchers between 2006 and 2021. Those who started on statins during the study period were 10% less likely to develop dementia. Those taking them early reduced their risk by 15%. The results were similar in women and men. The findings were presented on Sunday at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and simultaneously published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe journal. Prof Isabel Goncalves, a member of the ESC communication comm