Statins and Stupidity: Are Statins Causing Memory Loss in Women?

Statins are drugs that lower cholesterol. A New York Times health reporter weighs in on side-effects of the widely-prescribed medications: some doctors have said that statins make you stupid and forgetful.



A molecule of Lovastatin - the first statin marketed.

The article she's talking about is by another health reporter over on the Wall Street Journal. Here's a quote from that article:

"This drug makes women stupid," Orli Etingin, vice chairman of medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, declared at a recent luncheon discussion sponsored by Project A.L.S. to raise awareness of gender issues and the brain. Dr. Etingin, who is also founder and director of the Iris Cantor Women's Health Center in New York, told of a typical patient in her 40s, unable to concentrate or recall words. Tests found nothing amiss, but when the woman stopped taking Lipitor, the symptoms vanished. When she resumed taking Lipitor, they returned.

Medical News has an entoire section on statins.