Exploring the Relationship between Statins and Alzheimer’s Disease: Can Statins Really Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?

Abstract

Alzheimer's Disease is a common form of dementia that has neurological and behavioral reper-cussions. It is definitively diagnosed usually via an autopsy when the following three common markers are found: flattened cortical gray matter, Tau proteins and Beta-amyloid proteins. Pa-tients suffering from Down Syndrome or Parkinson's Disease are often associated with Alzheimer's because they have 2 of the 3 precursors. There has been extensive research on Alzheimer's and many studies claim that statins, a cholesterol-reducing drug, can help prevent Alzheimer's Disease resulting in low levels of beta-amyloid. However, there are several reasons to believe that this is not true and in some cases statins may even induce AD. This paper will examine the pathology of Alzheimer's, the effect of statins and whether it truly plays a role in preventing AD.