Research has shown that high blood levels of ‘good’ high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol can increase the risk of dementia.
This is the result of a research team led by Professor Maria Glimo of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine, analyzing the medical records of over 184,000 participants (average age 70 years) of Kaiser Permanente’s ‘Northern California Health Plan’ for 17 years.
The normal level of HDL cholesterol in the blood is more than 40 mg/dL for men and more than 50 mg/dL for women.
The average HDL cholesterol level of the study subjects was 53.7 mg/dL.
The research team classified them into five groups according to their HDL cholesterol levels. Those above 65 mg/dL were classified as the highest group.
The average follow-up period was 9 years, and over 25,000 people were diagnosed with dementia during that time.
As a result of the analysis, it was found that the group with the highest blood HDL cholesterol level had a 15% higher incidence of dementia than the group with the middle level.
Additionally, the group with the lowest HDL cholesterol blood level (11 to 41 mg/dL) had a 7% higher incidence of dementia than the group with the middle level.
The research team said that although other variables such as alcohol consumption, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes were taken into consideration, these results did not change.
Meanwhile, LDL cholesterol blood levels were not associated with dementia risk. The research team explained that this shows that HDL cholesterol has a complex relationship with dementia, just as it does with heart disease and cancer.
Studies have shown that excessively high HDL cholesterol levels increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death from all causes.
As a result of the analysis, the degree of dementia risk shown was not very large, but the clinical significance of this was unknown, the research team said.
“This is an unexpected result,” said Dr. Howard Weintraub, clinical director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at New York University. “HDL cholesterol levels may not be very high, such as 90 mg/dL or 100 mg/dL, but levels around 65 mg/dL are not associated with dementia.” “He commented.
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) took a cautious stance, saying that it does not prove that high or low HDL cholesterol is the cause of dementia.
The results of this study were published in the latest issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Meanwhile, cholesterol is a fat-like substance circulating in the blood. It is a component of the tissue membranes that make up our body, is involved in making hormones, and plays an important role in lipid metabolism.
The human body needs a small amount of cholesterol to function smoothly. All of the cholesterol needed by the body is made in the liver. We also obtain cholesterol through the food we eat.
‘Good’ HDL cholesterol carries the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol remaining in the blood to the liver. In other words, HDL cholesterol acts as a blood vessel cleaner that removes LDL cholesterol, which damages blood vessels.
The more HDL cholesterol in the blood, the lower the LDL cholesterol level, preventing arteriosclerosis, which causes stroke and myocardial infarction.
On the other hand, ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol is produced in the liver or small intestine (70-80%) or absorbed through food (20-30%) and is transported to human tissues. The downside is that the particles are small and easily stick to blood vessel walls.
Daeik Kwon Medical reporter dkwon@hankookilbo.com
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2023-10-11 12:15:41
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