Can statins really cause memory loss and weight gain? New evidence says 'no'

• A large meta-analysis has found that using statins is not associated with an increased risk for the vast majority of their listed side effects.
• These listed side effects include memory loss, dementia, depression, weight gain, and sleep disturbance.
• While statins use was associated with a small increase in risk of liver blood test abnormalities, there was no corresponding increase in liver disease risk.

A landmark study published in The Lancet has found that a class of drugs used by millions of people worldwide does not cause the majority of side effects that manufacturers list on their product labels.

Statins are a group of medications that doctors typically prescribe to lower cholesterol levels.

These drugs prevent a particular liver enzyme from helping to produce cholesterol. In doing so, they can reduce the amount of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the body, which people sometimes refer to as “bad” cholesterol, as well as fats in the blood.

People tend to use statins if they have high levels of LDL cholesterol or if they are at an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and stroke.

Although statins are effective and often life-saving, they come with a list of potential side effects, including short-term memory loss, weight gain, and depression symptoms. that might make some people wary of using them.

“Concerns about the safety of statins have deterred many people who are at risk of severe disability or death from a heart attack or stroke,” explained lead author Christina Reith, PhD, FRCP, FFPM, an associate professor in the Medical Sciences Division at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, in a press release.

According to the authors of the current study, some previous research had suggested that statins cause side effects in around a fifth of people using them, which may have coincided with some patients stopping using them to prevent cardiovascular disease.

This new research disputes this, and could provide welcome news for a population having to make significant decisions around their future health.

“Our study provides reassurance that, for most people, the risk of side effects is greatly outweighed by the benefits of statins,” said Reith.