Could High Cholesterol Be A Contributing Factor In The Development Of Alzheimer's Disease
It is well-known that high cholesterol levels are a precursor to cardiovascular disease. We also know that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and seventy percent of heart attack victims have high cholesterol. But now there seems to be another really serious disease that experts believe could be linked to high cholesterol, and that is Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease is perhaps the most feared disease of all. Anyone who has had to watch helplessly as a family member gradually slipped into the darkness of Alzheimer's knows the pain and heartbreak this disease can bring.
According to an article in HealthDay News research suggests that high cholesterol levels could raise the risk of Alzheimer's disease by creating more brain-clogging bits known as plaque.
The good news, in what is a very disturbing sea of troubling information, is that the findings in this article don't directly prove that high cholesterol causes Alzheimer's disease or that lowering it would reduce the risk. Also, the research failed to link Alzheimer's and dangerous brain tangles.
On the other hand, the discoveries add to prior research linking insulin resistance to this dangerous brain disease. According the study's author Dr. Kensuke Sasaki better control of both cholesterol levels and insulin resistance, both risk factor for heart disease might contribute to a strategy for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
Currently 5.4 million people are known to have Alzheimer's disease and countless others have early stage Alzheimer's which can easily be overlooked or confused with other much less severe conditions and diseases.
The research conducted by Dr. Sasaki consisted of 147 Japanese people – 76 men, 71 women who were all alive in 1988 when they went through a thorough clinical examination. All underwent autopsies between 1998 and 2003.
Of the 147 people participating in the study 49 had dementia, although no signs were apparent until 1988.
Compared with people with low cholesterol levels, those with high cholesterol levels were more likely to have plaque in the brain: 62 percent versus 86 percent.
On the other hand brain tangles weren't more common in people with high cholesterol.
Dr. Marc L. Gordon, chief of neurology at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., found the study to be both credible and intriguing and went on to add that this study reinforces the suspicion that high cholesterol levels in midlife, particularly bad cholesterol/LDL boosts the risk of Alzheimer's later in life.
It is not clear how cholesterol may make plaques in the brain more common, said Gordon, although cholesterol is found in plaques. It is possible that cholesterol could set off another process that causes Alzheimer's, he said, or that something else "predisposes you to be prone to Alzheimer's and raises your cholesterol levels."
In conclusion, high cholesterol has no known long-term benefits and now we can add Alzheimer's to the list of possible dangerous diseases linked to it. Lowering cholesterol, in most cases, is about changing old habits, adopting new healthier habits, and enlisting the help of convention medications such as statins.
Put simply, this means finding ways to increase HDL (good cholesterol) and decrease LDL (bad cholesterol levels), while bringing overall cholesterol down to acceptable heart healthy levels. Certainly when deciding on ways to bring cholesterol levels into healthy levels the aforementioned statin drugs will be one of your options but they do carry a number of serious label warnings.
The side effect risks have compelled many natural health minded individuals to seek out alternatives. One of the safest, and most effective, are natural cholesterol reduction supplements containing ingredients such as policosanol and plant-based phytosterol compounds. When combined with a heart healthy diet and doctor approved daily exercise this all natural treatment approach has shown to one worth considering. As always talk to your doctor before making medication changes.
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