A newly released population study by South Korean researchers documents a compelling connection. Maintaining low levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) may reduce your risk of developing dementia by as much as 40%. These results infer that people with low LDL-C under 70 mg/dL may have 13% lower risk of developing dementia. Those who took statins, which are a class of cholesterol lowering meds, reduced their risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 12%. This benefit only happens with careful control of LDL-C to an appropriate level.
The researchers categorized participants into three groups based on their LDL-C levels: less than 55 mg/dL, less than 70 mg/dL, and greater than 130 mg/dL. They tracked two major groups of people for 180 days post testing their LDL-C. One of those cohorts comprised 108,980 individuals with baseline LDL-C ≥ 130 mg/dL. The counter group matched this number, with participants whose LDL-C levels were less than 70 mg/dL.
Notably, our findings strongly suggest that dropping LDL-C takes more preferable precedence between the cognitive health at lowest degree of LDL-C (<70 mg/dl). Once LDL-C fell below 70 mg/dL, the associated decrease in risk for dementia disappeared. Specifically, people with LDL-C at 55 mg/dL received an average of just 18% risk reduction. What’s more, the study determined that below 30 mg/dL, there was no reduction in dementia risk whatsoever.
“This is an interesting observation indicating a potential threshold effect, where reducing LDL-C beyond a certain point does not further improve cognitive outcomes. It aligns with previous research indicating that while high LDL-C is harmful, excessively low levels may not offer additional protective effects.” – MacSweeney
The relationship between cholesterol levels and dementia risk is paradoxical. With dementia on the rise across the world, learning what we can do to reduce the risk is more important than ever. The study demonstrates that statins are an effective way to reduce the risk of developing dementia for those whose LDL-C levels are elevated. They had little or no effect on participants whose LDL-C levels were <55 mg/dL.
“In general, I recommend statin or other lipid-lowering medications be used according to recommended guidelines for prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease and not merely for dementia prevention given the lack of well-controlled research studies to guide their use, as it is possible that statin medications do not reduce the risk of dementia and have their own risks.” – David Gill, MD
Overall, these findings further support the necessity of including lipid management within the broader discussion of health and cognitive performance. Researchers highlight the importance of maintaining a low LDL-C level as well. They point out that their research shows there’s a sweet spot for everyone, not a blanket cholesterol target for all to follow.
“This is an important distinction because there is limited evidence that statin use is associated with less risk of dementia despite many studies looking at this risk,” – David Gill, MD
As exciting as these results are, researchers urge anyone to make any firm conclusions just yet. The observational design of the study limits its ability to establish causation between statin use and reduced dementia risk.
“Since this was an observational study, we cannot use the results to say that statins reduced the risk, just that a patient being on a statin medication may have been associated with an even lower risk of dementia.” – David Gill, MD
With the world’s population aging, the number of people with dementia is increasing faster than any other major disease. These results clearly illustrate that we need to do more research into the role of cholesterol on cognitive health. Cholesterol can be managed through healthy lifestyle choices and taking medicine. What we really lack are high-quality randomized control trials to better understand how these modifiable factors are connected with dementia risk.
Leave a Reply