Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : December 8, 2022 12:11 PM IST
People with high cholesterol are often prescribed statins to lower their cholesterol levels in the blood and reduce their risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Too much cholesterol in the blood can lead to development of fatty deposits in the blood vessels. These fatty deposits, called plaques, can reduce blood flow to your arteries, sometimes they can break suddenly and form a clot that can trigger a heart attack (when a clot blocks blood flow to the heart) or stroke (when a clot blocks the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain).
Now, a new study has concluded that people taking statins or cholesterol-lowering drugs may also have a lower risk of having intracerebral hemorrhage, a type of stroke caused by bleeding within the brain tissue, which is a life-threatening emergency.
Previous studies have shown that statins can reduce the risk of stroke from blood clots, but results have been conflicting when it comes to statin use and the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage. The new study found that people who used a statin had a lower risk of this type of bleeding stroke in both the lobe and non-lobe areas of the brain, and the risk further decreased with long-term statin use.
The findings were reported in the latest online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The research team included David Gaist, MD, PhD, of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the study, they compared the health records of people who had an intracerebral hemorrhage in the lobe area or the non-lobe parts of the brain. and those who did not have this type of stroke. The average age of the participants was 76.
Of the total participants, 6.8 per cent who had an intracerebral hemorrhage had been taking statins for five or more years, compared to 8.6 per cent of those who did not have a stroke.
After adjusting for risk factors, it was found that people currently taking statins had a 17 per cent lower risk of having the bleeding stroke in the lobe areas of the brain and a 16 per cent lower risk of stroke in the non-lobe areas of the brain.
Longer use of statins was associated better results. In those who have been using statins for more than five years, the risk of having a stroke in the lobe area of the brain was 33 per cent lesser and they had a 38 per cent lower risk for stroke in the non-lobe area of the brain.
Based on the findings, the experts concluded that statins appear to help reduce the risk of both bleeding stroke and stroke from blood clots. However, they noted that the research was done in only the Danish population, and more research should be done including other populations.
