The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Alzheimer’s patients have significantly reduced levels of cholesterol and fats in the brain

This study was published in Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders 1998 Sep;12(3):198-203

Study title and authors:
Reduced levels of cholesterol, phospholipids, and fatty acids in cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer disease patients are not related to apolipoprotein E4.
Mulder M, Ravid R, Swaab DF, de Kloet ER, Haasdijk ED, Julk J, van der Boom JJ, Havekes LM.
Gaubius Laboratory, TNO-PG, Leiden, The Netherlands.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9772023

The study compared levels of cholesterol and fats in cerebrospinal fluid (cerebrospinal fluid is found in the brain and spinal canal) in Alzheimers patients and subjects without Alzheimers. The study assessed the brain tissue at postmortem in 30 Alzheimers cases and 31 age-matched control patients.

The study found:
(a) Cholesterol levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients without alzheimer's was 55% higher than in patients with Alzheimer's.
(b) Fatty acid levels (fat molecules) in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients without alzheimer's was 522% higher than in patients with Alzheimer's.
(c) Phospholipid levels (phospholipids contain two molecules of fat and are a major component of cell membranes) in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients without alzheimer's was 1650% higher than in patients with Alzheimer's.

The results of the study show that Alzheimer’s patients have significantly reduced levels of cholesterol and fats in the cerebrospinal fluid.