Scientists Identify New Potential Benefits of Statins Beyond Lowering Cholesterol - SciTechDaily

“While statins have been shown to reduce the risk of stroke from blood clots, there has been conflicting research on whether statin use increases or decreases the risk of a person having a first intracerebral hemorrhage,” said study author David Gaist, MD, Ph.D., of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

“For our study, we looked at the lobe and non-lobe areas of the brain to see if the location was a factor for statin use and the risk of a first intracerebral hemorrhage.

The non-lobe area primarily includes the basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, and brainstem.

For the study, researchers looked at health records in Denmark and identified 989 people with an average age of 76 who had an intracerebral hemorrhage in the lobe area of the brain.

After adjusting for factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, and alcohol use, researchers found that people currently using statins had a 17% lower risk of having a stroke in the lobe areas of the brain and a 16% lower risk of stroke in the non-lobe areas of the brain.

Reference: “Association Between Statin Use and Intracerebral Hemorrhage Location: A Nested Case-Control Registry Study” by Nils Jensen Boe, Stine Munk Hald, Mie Micheelsen Jensen, Jonas Asgaard Bojsen, Mohammad Talal Elhakim, Sandra Florisson, Alisa Saleh, Anne Clausen, Sören Möller, Frederik Severin Gråe Harbo, Ole Graumann, Jesper Hallas, Luis Alberto García Rodríguez, Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, Larry B. Goldstein and David Gaist, 7 December 2022, Neurology.