COPENHAGEN (Dispatches) -- A recent study has revealed that people who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may have a lower risk of having a type of stroke called an intracerebral hemorrhage.
The study carried out by scientists from the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, analyzed 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. They were compared to 39,500 people who did not have this type of stroke and were similar in age, sex and other factors. Also, they looked at 1,175 people with an average age of 75 who had an intracerebral hemorrhage in the non-lobe parts of the brain. They were compared to 46,755 people who did not have this type of stroke and were similar in age, sex and other factors.These researchers used prescription data to determine information on statin use.
As a result of the study, those who used statins longer , was associated with a lower risk of stroke in both areas of the brain. When using statins for more than five years, people had a 33% lower risk of having a stroke in the lobe area of the brain and a 38% lower risk of stroke in the non-lobe area of the brain.