Parkinson's Disease and Statin link? - High Cholesterol Message Board

janeslk · 01-16-2007, 12:58 PM

I was in my car and heard something about a big clinical trial to determine if lowering your bad cholesterol too much can cause Parkinson's Disease. I noticed a post over at the Parkinson's board about it, too.

It was stressed that the small initial study was not definitive, but caused enough alarm to trigger a larger study. What do you think? Anybody with low LDL have any problems?

Jane

JJ · 01-16-2007, 04:23 PM

Is this due to lowering with meds. or anyone with even naturally low numbers? Seems lately I see an awful lot of stuff being blamed on low cholesterol, where as a few years ago, everything that was wrong with you was due to high numbers. Good grief, make up my mind!

My BIL passed away almost 2 years ago due to a very damaged heart condition, and had VERY low cholesterol, naturallylow, no meds., and now the dr. is watching his son carefully as he too has extremely low cholesterol. That particular dr. seems to think having very low cholesterol is as bad as having too high. Let us know if you read or hear anything else.

Only person I know who has shakyness is my girlfriends husband, and he also has very naturally low cholesterol. Don't know all his numbers, but I do know his TC is 130, and his LDL is somewhere around 60. His dad had Parkinsons disease, but have no idea what his numbers were, but do know he said he was like his dad, and inherited very low numbers. Interesting!!

janeslk · 01-16-2007, 05:30 PM

I know I am confused on this as well. I thought I read somewhere that statins can guard against Parkinson's Disease. I know the researchers are not suggesting that people stop taking statins. Parkinson's Disease is strange also in that smokers apparently do not develop it as much as non-smokers. Maybe smoking raises your bad cholesterol.

I vaguely remember a post several months ago from someone wondering if there was a connection between statins and Parkinson's because a relative had developed Parkinson's after being placed on a statin.

Since I have low cholesterol I think I may grab a tablespoon of transfat for dinner.

Jane

JJ · 01-16-2007, 05:55 PM

Did you ever get the feeling the medical community is making us just a tad nuts??? Yes, smoking is not good for anything, even cholesterol, and God knows I am going bananas trying to QUIT!! I did it for 10 years and went back, how dumb, now I am on the quit track again. I took some pills my dr. gave me, but holy cow, nasty stomach sickness, so just have to go it cold turkey...

I have gotten so I rarely look anything up about cholesterol anymore, as they are confusing me more and more. Hubby and I are just doing as we have for the last few years, listening to his cardio man and eating as much in moderation as possible. I finally convinced hubby to knock off eating so much bread, even though it was whole wheat, he still ate way too much, and now his TRIGs have come down quite abit. He always was in the 400 range, last test he was 260, not great, but alot better. I doubt I would eat some Trans fats for supper, not a good idea......

Hopefully we see the day the medical community gets this cholesterol thing right.

Enjoy your evening, and TTYL....

HubbleRules · 01-16-2007, 06:09 PM

janeslk,

I read about this the other day, and when I researched it, I found that the study was small (only around 240 participants), and that they found a few statistical correlations:

a) the low-ldl (ldl < 114) group in the study had a 3x higher rate of Parkinsons than the high-ldl (> 138) group

b) the group that took statins had a lower rate of Parkinsons than the group that did not

The results are somewhat confusing and conflicted. The researchers warned people against acting on the results until they did a larger follow-up study.

At this point they don't have a clue as to whether low-ldl causes Parkinson's, or whether it is a side-effect of having Parkinson's. Since statins were related to a lower risk, they suspect (but definitely can't prove) that risk of Parkinson's would be greatest in those who've had low LDL their entire life.

I wouldn't read much into this study.

HubbleRules