Statin Use Linked to Higher Dementia Risk in Two Large Cohorts

Researchers tracked 83,355 adults in a National Institutes of Health research cohort in the U.S., including 31,513 statin users, from 2006 through 2023, and separately followed 173,282 adults in the UK Biobank, including 43,976 statin users, through 2017. All participants were age 40 or older and self-identified as White. After statistically balancing the statin and non-statin groups for baseline health differences, statin use was linked to 2.22 times the dementia risk in the U.S. group and 2.54 times the risk in the U.K. group. People on high-intensity statins carried 14% more risk than those on moderate-to-low intensity statins. Absolute risk, meaning how many actual dementia cases occurred in each group, was not reported in the abstract.

In an additional analysis, the researchers traced part of this statistical link through coenzyme Q7, a protein the body uses to build CoQ10. That pathway accounted for 8.2% of the total association between statins and dementia risk. A separate pathway through LDL cholesterol did not reach statistical significance.

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CoQ10 is a compound cells use to generate energy inside mitochondria, the cell's energy-producing structures, and statins are known to lower natural CoQ10 production as a side effect of blocking the same liver pathway that makes cholesterol.