Healthy Bytes

This is your brain on statins

170 words, about a minute

More anecdotal evidence is coming out that links statins to cognitive misfunctioning namely brain fog, transient global amnesia and Alzheimer’s like symptoms.

As we said two posts ago in Cholesterol: problem or symptom –
your body manufactures cholesterol in the liver
statins lower cholesterol

Back in 2001 Dr. Frank Pfrieger, of Centre de Neurochimie in France showed that cholesterol in the brain was responsible for developing synapses. Synapses allow communication between neurons. So, no cholesterol… impaired synapses… impaired learning and memory. (Still want to lower your cholesterol?)

But wait, there’s more…
Both LDL and HDL molecules circulating in the blood stream are too large to pass through the blood/brain barrier. Thus, brain cholesterol needs to be manufactured in the brain rather than the liver.

However, those wonderful statins DO pass through the blood/brain barrier. Since researchers are able to show that statins lower cholesterol, it is reasonable to assume – tho it has not been scientifically proven to my knowledge – that statins lower cholesterol in the brain.

Coming attraction: the statin stuper

This entry was posted on Wed, 14.Feb.2007 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Health, Pharmaceuticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.