High levels of HDL cholesterol (high density lipoprotein), the famous “bad” cholesterol, are certainly not an indication of excellent health, they are in fact often linked to an increased risk for various pathologies. Now, a study from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has revealed how it could contribute to something else too.
The important study, published online on the pages of “The Lancet Regional Health: Western Pacific”claims in fact that high levels of HDL cholesterol are associated with an increased risk of developing dementia.
Dr. Sultana Monira Hussain, of Monash University in Melbourne, thanks also to the collaboration of some colleagues, conducted an “a posteriori” (post-hoc) analysis of the study “Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly” to determine how elevated plasma HDL-C levels were associated with a increased risk of dementia in a group of initially healthy elderly people.
The cohort study collected data from 16,703 healthy participants aged 70 years or older from Australia itself, and 2,411 healthy participants aged 65 years or older from the United States.
The researchers then discovered that 4.6% of participants developed incident dementia over 6.3 years. In particular, in analyzes organized by age, participants with elevated HDL-C (greater than 80 mg/dL) were found to have a higher risk of dementia, especially in those participants aged 75 years or older compared to those aged under 75 years of age.
After distribution by age, sex, country of enrollment, daily exercise, education, alcohol consumption, weight change over time, non-HDL-C polygenic risk score, HDL-C, and APOE genotype, the associations found remained significant.
The authors of the study stated: “Increased risk of dementia associated with high HDL-C levels appeared to be independent of traditional risk factors, including level of physical activity, alcohol consumption, education, diabetes or smoking. This study instead reveals a new vision of the insurgency”.
Research for metabolic diseases is always evolving, such as the new CRISPR therapy to fight cholesterol which seems to be really promising, as well as the study revealing how caffeine can protect us from cardiovascular diseases.