ST. PAUL, Minn. ? New research indicates cholesterol lowering
drugs known as statins may help prevent future strokes among
young people who have already had a stroke. The study is
published in the August 2, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the
medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Because
the cause of stroke in young people can be hard to identify,
cholesterol-lowering drugs are often not used to prevent further
strokes or vascular problems," said study author Jukka Putaala,
MD, PhD, with the Helsinki University Central Hospital in
Helsinki, Finland. "This study suggests that the drugs should be
considered even when the cause of the stroke is unknown and the
cholesterol levels are not high." For the study, researchers
looked at the medical records of 215 people between the ages of
15 and 49 who experienced a first stroke called an ischemic
stroke and were then followed for an average of nine years. One-
third of the participants had taken a statin at some point after
their stroke. Of the 36 pe