What happens to mice when they get very high doses of cholesterol medicine?
Adverse neurobehavioral changes with reduced blood and brain cholinesterase activities in mice treated with statins
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Statins caused both motor impairment and antidepressant-like behavior in the same animals.
It’s counterintuitive: a drug that slows movement also makes animals persist longer in a stressful task. Normally, reduced locomotion would suggest sedation or fatigue, not resilience.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t stop taking your statin over brain fog fears — but talk to your doctor if you feel unusual side effects.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Statins caused both motor impairment and antidepressant-like behavior in the same animals.
It’s counterintuitive: a drug that slows movement also makes animals persist longer in a stressful task. Normally, reduced locomotion would suggest sedation or fatigue, not resilience.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t stop taking your statin over brain fog fears — but talk to your doctor if you feel unusual side effects.
Publication
Journal
Veterinary World
Year
2024
Authors
R. Al-Shalchi, F. Mohammad
Related Content
Claims (6)
A type of drug that lowers cholesterol works well in lab tests, but high doses can be toxic in animals, which might slow down its use in people.
Giving really high doses of certain cholesterol drugs to male mice might make them move slower and explore less — the higher the dose, the worse the effect seems to be.
In mice, super high doses of certain cholesterol drugs seem to lower the activity of an important brain enzyme across the body, including in the brain, just a couple of hours after taking them.
In male mice given very high doses of statins, the brain and blood show some recovery in a key enzyme within a day, but the enzyme in red blood cells stays low — suggesting different parts of the body bounce back at different rates.
When male mice get really high doses of statins, they act differently — like moving less or exploring less — and their brain chemistry changes too. Scientists think the way statins affect a certain brain enzyme might be why this happens.