Arrows point to lacunar infarcts - source: Wik

(Best Syndication News) Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland found that people with elevated cholesterol are at a higher risk for dementia. Even a small elevation in midlife can “significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease”. Elevated levels also raised the risk of vascular dementia.

This is the first study to look at the relationship between borderline high cholesterol and vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s. This usually occurs in late-life and is caused by conditions affecting the blood supply to the brain. It is important to detect the disease early because it is at least partially preventable.

Kaiser conducted a forty year long study involving 9,844 men and women. Those with a cholesterol level of 200 – 239 mg/dL in midlife were at a 66 percent increased risk for Alzheimer’s. The risk was similar for vascular dementia. Those with elevated cholesterol were at a 52 percent increased risk.

Study participants were members of Kaiser’s Northern California Medical Group. They began tracking adults between the ages of 40 to 45 in 1964 to 1973. They followed a “diverse population” for 40 years.

"Our study shows that even moderately high cholesterol levels in your 40s puts people at greater risk for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia decades later," said the study's senior author. Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D., a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

Whitmer says that if high cholesterol is detected early, the risk can be turned around through healthy lifestyle changes.

By Marsha Quinn and Jeffrey Workman