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| This news site is not sanctioned by, nor part of, the Diamond Headache Foundation, The American Academy of Neurology OR The American Headache Society. |
| News covering selected sessions related to migraine from 2008 medical conferences. |
| Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology |
Chicago, IL April 15-18, 2008 |
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High Midlife Cholesterol Increases Risk
of Alzheimer’s and Dementia |
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BY PATRICE WENDLING
Chicago Bureau |
CHICAGO
(ECCC)— High cholesterol levels in midlife are
associated with an increased
risk of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, data from a
large, diverse cohort suggest.
The analysis of more than 9,500 individuals showed that those
patients with midlife total cholesterol levels of 249-500 mg/dL
were one-and-a-half times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s
disease than were patients with cholesterol levels less than 198
mg/dL (hazard ratio, 1.52), Dr. Alina Solomon and associates
reported April 16 in a poster at the annual meeting
of the American Academy of Neurology.
The risk of Alzheimer’s was also significantly increased for
patients with a history of cholesterol levels of 221-248 mg/dL
(HR, 1.30), and those with levels of 198-220 mg/dL (HR, 1.18).
A similar pattern was observed for vascular dementia, with the
risk of dementia
significantly increased for patients with levels of 206-239 mg/dL
(HR, 1.45). There
was an upward trend among patients with levels of 239-500 mg/dL
(HR, 1.22), but the number of patients was too small to reach
statistical significance, said Dr. Solomon of the University of
Kuopio (Finland).
The study involved 9,752 patients who underwent health checkups
between 1964 and 1973 when they were aged 40-45 years, and who
remained with the Kaiser Permanente of Northern California
through 1994. From 1994 to 2007, 504 patients had a diagnosis of
Alzheimer’s disease and 162 had vascular dementia, according to
a review of the patients’ medical records.
The age at diagnosis was 70 years for each diagnosis.
At baseline, 46% of patients were male, 6.5% were Asian, 15%
black, 74% white,
and 4% other.
The Cox proportional analysis adjusted for a variety of factors
including, education, race, gender, midlife diabetes,
hypertension, body mass index, smoking, drinking, and late-life
stroke.
“High midlife serum cholesterol can increase the risk of both
Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia,” Dr. Solomon said in
an interview. “Both physicians and patients should work on
reducing their cholesterol levels if they are too high already
at midlife in order to reduce the risk of dementia.
“The key message is that minding heart health may protect the
brain as well.”
There were no significant interactions between sex and midlife
cholesterol levels, or between race and midlife cholesterol
levels, in relation to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or
vascular dementia, reported the investigators, who received no
funding for the study and reported no conflicts of interest. |
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