Your Midlife Cholesterol Level: A Warning Flag For Later Brain Health Problems

For some time, researchers have known that a high cholesterol level at midlife is a risk factor for later dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. But new research shows that decreasing cholesterol levels from midlife onward are linked to cognitive impairment late in life.

The reason why is unclear, although they hypothesize that the declining cholesterol levels may "reflect ongoing pathological processes in the brain."

Researchers from Finland and Sweden tracked participants in an ongoing long-term study. The average period between the initial and most recent examinations was 21 years.

They found that

"A moderate decrease in serum TC (total cholesterol) from midlife to late life ... was significantly associated with the risk of a more impaired late-life cognitive status, even after adjusting for age, follow-up time, sex, years of formal education, midlife cholesterol, changes in body mass index, APOE {varepsilon}4 genotype,* history of myocardial infarction/stroke/diabetes, and lipid-lowering treatment ... decreasing serum TC after midlife may reflect ongoing disease processes and may represent a risk marker for late-life cognitive impairment."

They also confirmed that high midlife cholesterol levels are a risk factor for severe cognitive impairment, and that the higher the TC level, the higher the later impairment. Other recent research hints that controlling too-high cholesterol levels has a positive impact on patients already suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The research was published in the journal Neurology (link to abstract).

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* a gene known to predispose people to developing Alzheimer's.