Ozarks Local, page 1:
Cover Story:
Cholesterol drugs used to treat Alzheimer's?
By Kathleen Fackelmann
In our July issue, we printed a press release from UCLA with amazing advancements in identifying Alzheimer's Disease while in infant stages and with hope in the new technology will prevent it's further development. The following was discovered recently by the Sun Health Research Institute:
The drug is Lipitor, one of a group of prescription drugs called statins that millions of Americans take to lower their cholesterol and their risk of heart disease. Researchers now are testing those same drugs to see if they also lessen the ravages of Alzheimer's.
"I think this must be helping," June Pond says. "People usually go downhill pretty fast." Marshall's memory, she says, hasn't worsened. He's able to carry on a conversation with a friend. In fact, most people don't realize Marshall has Alzheimer's at all.
The researcher for the Lipitor study, Larry Sparks of the Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., believes statins may hold the line on Alzheimer's or perhaps prevent it from developing in the first place.
Scientists know that too much cholesterol in the blood can clog arteries in a process that can lead to a heart attack. But many researchers now think that high blood cholesterol also affects the brain.
"Excess cholesterol may be instrumental in the formation of senile plaque," Sparks says. That plaque, the hallmark of Alzheimer's, is an abnormal cluster of dead or dying brain cells and toxic proteins that short-circuit memory and other crucial brain functions.
Ten years ago, most researchers simply dismissed the link between cholesterol and Alzheimer's. But that attitude began to change when more than a dozen studies suggested otherwise.
Ongoing research to better define the relationship between the two has the potential to help an estimated 4 million Americans who currently suffer from Alzheimer's. If a cholesterol-lowering strategy can be shown to prevent the disease, the findings would help millions of baby boomers who face the growing threat of the disease, which can strike people in their 50s but is most common after 65.
The nation desperately needs a preventive strike against this brain disorder, says Bill Thies, a vice president at the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association. Without it, his group estimates, the number of Americans with Alzheimer's will jump to 14 million by 2050.
"We're on the ascending limb of an epidemic," he says.
There's no doubt Alzheimer's disease is a complex illness, one probably caused by genetic, environmental and perhaps other factors. Still, if this new theory pans out, it could mean something as simple as lowering blood cholesterol levels could help reduce the risk of a disease that robs the mind of memories and, in the end, even of rational thought.
The research also gives Americans another reason to lower elevated blood cholesterol levels with a low-fat diet or with drugs.
"If you lower your cholesterol levels right now, you'll be healthier," Sparks says, noting that such a step reduces the risk of heart disease and may offer the bonus of warding off Alzheimer's.
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