'Good' cholesterol not good? HDL deemed a dementia risk, suggests new study

As per a new study, the "good" HDL cholesterol is not as healthy as experts once believed. The new study, which was published in Neurology on Wednesday (Oct 4), discovered that having either high or low levels of high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol increases the risk of dementia in older adults.

The research suggests that there is more evidence which shows it is important to maintain HDL cholesterol within a certain range for cardiovascular and brain health.

“The relationship between HDL cholesterol and dementia is more complex than we previously thought," stated the study’s lead author, Erin Ferguson. Ferguson is a doctoral student pursuing epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco. "While the magnitude of this relationship is relatively small, it’s important,” he added.

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The results of the study showed a correlation between dementia and HDL cholesterol but failed to prove that high or low levels of the lipid directly led to dementia.

The study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging, considered more than 184,000 adults with an average age of 70. When the study started, none of the adults had dementia.

More than 25,000 people developed dementia during study

The electronic records from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health plan and a combination of surveys were used by the researchers to track health behaviours, cholesterol levels and if someone developed dementia in a time span of 13 years.

During that period, more than 25,000 people had developed dementia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked people to maintain their total cholesterol at about 150 mg/dL, with LDL at or below 100 mg/dL. For a long time, low-density lipoprotein, or LDL cholesterol has been believed to have a deadly impact on the cardiovascular system.

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The participants of the study were divided into three groups on the basis of their HDL cholesterol levels and other dementia risk factors which included diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and how often a person drinks.

In the study, the average HDL cholesterol level was 53.7 mg/dL, within the recommended range of 50 mg/dL in women and 40 mg/dL in men.

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