Dementia, a neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of people worldwide, with very few effective options for preventing or treating it, can have their risks reduced by an extremely common drug: statins.
In a recent study, Published in BMJ Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, South Korean researchers have found that maintaining “bad” cholesterol at low but not too low can be a dementia protection.
According to the research, This protection seems to be higher in people who use statins than in those who have naturally low LDL. This suggests that these blood levels to lower blood levels may have additional protective effects.
Although the benefits of low LDL-C levels have been known for a long time in protecting cardiovascular events, their relationship with dementia has been less clear. It is not mainly known to the limit below which there is no more benefits to reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
With this, the authors highlight the complexity of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), a “stamped figurine” on blood tests. They also question the general principle of “the lowest, always the better.”
Thus, the general objective of the current study was to “explore the correlation between LDL-C levels and the risk of developing dementia, covering dementia for all causes and dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease ”This is a robust study based on clinical data from 11 university hospitals.
Testing the relationship between “bad” and dementia cholesterol
To test their hypotheses, the authors analyzed outpatient data collected between 1986 and 2020 of more than 12 million adult patients without prior dementia, accompanied for at least 180 days after LDL-C testing in the lipid profile.
The initial group selected for cohort study “comprised 192,213 patients with LDL-C levels less than 1.8 mmol/L (<70mg/dL) and 379,006 patients with LDL-C levels greater than 3.4 mmol/L (> 130mg/dL), and combined in two groups of 108,980 pairs.
People with LDL-C levels below 70 mg/dL had a 26% lower risk of being diagnosed with dementia for all causes and a 28% lower risk of dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease, than those with LDL-C levels of over 130 mg/dL.
However, when LDL levels fell below 54 mg/dL, participants had only an 18% lower risk of contract or Alzheimer’s. But, If LDL levels fell below 31 mg/dl, the protective effect completely disappeared .
When treated with statins, people with LDL-C below 70mg/DL had an additional 13% reduction in dementia risk and 12% at Alzheimer’s risk, compared to non-users of the drug.
According to the authors, even in patients with higher levels of LDL-C, statins slightly reduced the risk of dementia. However, the medication had no effect on those with LDL-C levels below 55 mg/dL.
Why do cholesterol and statin reduce the risk of dementia?
For authors, high levels of LDL-C cause inflammation, oxidative stress and imbalance in cerebral cholesterol, factors implicated in the emergence of dementia. Low cholesterol reduces the risk of atherosclerosis and cerebrovascular disease, cognitive decline precursors.
Statins, in turn, improve the function of blood coating cells of blood vessels, reduce neuroinflamation and regulate the levels of beta-amyloid protein, whose toxic accumulation forms the characteristic plates of Alzheimer.
“This suggests that statins can have neuroprotective effects and simply reduce LDL-C Possibly through an anti-inflammatory or vascular mechanism, ”explains the CEO of Re: Cognition Health, Eme Macsweeney, to Medical News Today.
She warns that the observed effect was modest, and confirmation of effective causality will depend on further studies. But even without proof that low LDL-C reduces the risk of dementia, keeping those levels below 100 mg/dL is recommended for cardiovascular protection, he warned.
For the consultant neuroradiologist, who did not participate in the study, the maintenance of healthy levels of LDL-C and optimization of cognitive benefits, the ideal is to maintain a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats such as olive oil, walnuts and fatty fish.
Remembering that statin therapy should only be considered if there is an indication of a doctor, Macsweeney has advised some preventive health booklet items, such as regular physical activity, avoid smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, controlling weight and monitoring hypertension and diabetes.
This study by researchers at Hallym University in Chuncheon in South Korea has important implications for preventive dementia treatment. The highlight is the double role of statins in cardiovascular protection and, potentially, also in neurological.
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This content was originally published in medicine to download cholesterol reduces the risk of dementia, says study on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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