Healthy old people have high cholesterol

This study was published in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Medicine 2009 Jul;67(7):1343-7

Study title and authors:
Clues to the exceptional longevity --morbiditiy and functional status of Tokyo-area centenarians

Takayama M, Hirose N
Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19591283

This study examined the association between various factors and physical & cognitive function in 302 people over a 100 years of age.

Regarding blood pressure and cholesterol levels, Takayama found that higher blood pressure, higher total cholesterol levels and higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were associated with better physical and cognitive function.

Takayama concluded: "This phenomenon might be one of the "centenarian paradox".

Dr Malcolm Kendrick will have a wry smile at yet another "health paradox." 

Low cholesterol may be a indicator of risk for cognitive impairment in the elderly

This study was published in the Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging 2016;20(3):280-7

Study title and authors:
Serum Cholesterol Levels within the High Normal Range Are Associated with Better Cognitive Performance among Chinese Elderly.

Lv YB, Yin ZX, Chei CL, Brasher MS, Zhang J, Kraus VB, Qian F, Shi XM, Matchar DB, Zeng Y.
Dr. Xiaoming Shi, No. 7 Pan Jia Yuan Nan Li, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26892577

The purpose of the study is to investigate the association of cholesterol levels with cognitive performance among the elderly. The study included a total of 2,000 elderly aged 65 years and over (average age 85.8 years).

The study found:
(a) Those with the highest cholesterol levels had a 27% decreased risk of cognitive impairment compared with those with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(b) Those with the highest levels of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol had a 19% decreased risk of cognitive impairment compared with those with the lowest levels of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
(c) Those with the highest levels of High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol had a 19% decreased risk of cognitive impairment compared with those with the lowest levels of High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

Dr Xiaoming Shi concluded: "Low cholesterol may serve a clinical indicator of risk for cognitive impairment in the elderly."

Links to other studies:
High cholesterol levels are associated with higher intelligence
High cholesterol levels boost memory function
Doctor concludes LDL cholesterol may be required to maintain or support memory function

Low cholesterol levels may lead to permanent psychomotor, cognitive, motorsystem damage, hypoadrenalism and infertility in both males and females

This study was published in the Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad 2010 Jul-Sep;22(3):225-7

Study title and authors:
Hypocholesterolemia secondary to atrovastatin therapy.

Ali S, Khan SA, Iram S.
Department of Medicine, NIMS Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan. drshafqutali@hotmail.com

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22338462

This paper describes the case of a 40 years old male who was started on Atorvastatin after his angioplasty (angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening narrowed or obstructed arteries) following a heart attack.

(i) Six weeks after the start of statin therapy the patient developed symptoms of phobias, nightmares, insomnia, forgetfulness, body aches, muscle cramps, cognitive, sexual and psychomotor disturbances.
(ii) On investigation he was found to have low cholesterol levels.
(iii) Atorvastatin was stopped and over a five month period the patients symptoms resolved as his cholesterol levels became normal.

The study concluded that if patients have low cholesterol levels it can lead to permanent psychomotor, cognitive, motorsystem damage, hypoadrenalism, infertility in both males and females along with permanent affects of fat soluble vitamins deficiencies.

Low cholesterol levels associated with slow mental processing in students

This study was published in Psychosomatic Medicine 1995 Jan-Feb;57(1):50-3

Study title and author:

Do low cholesterol levels slow mental processing?

Benton D.

Department of Psychology, University College, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7732160  

The study investigated the relationship between cholesterol levels and mental processing. Reaction times were assessed in 279 students, aged 18 to 25, by subjecting them to a series of tests that measured their decision times and movement times.

The study found that lower cholesterol levels were associated with slower decision times and slower movement times.

The data from this study suggests that higher cholesterol levels are related to higher cognitive efficiency.

High cholesterol levels boost memory function

This post contains a synopsis of a study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 2008 September; 16(9): 781–785

Study title and authors:
Better memory functioning associated with higher total and LDL cholesterol levels in very elderly subjects without the APOE4 allele
Rebecca West, M.A.,1 Michal Schnaider Beeri, Ph.D.,1 James Schmeidler, Ph.D.,1 Christine M. Hannigan, B.S.,1 Gary Angelo, M.S.,1 Hillel T. Grossman, M.D.,1,2 Clive Rosendorff, M.D., Ph.D.,1,2 and Jeremy M. Silverman, Ph.D.1,2
1Mount Sinai School of Medicine
2James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2614555/

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is found in some types of lipoptoteins that carry cholesterol around the body. About 20-25% of the population have the genetic type APOE4 allele.

 
The study examined the association of cholesterol with cognitive functioning in 185 people aged over 85 with and without the APOE4 allele.
 
The study found:
(a)  high total cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol were associated with higher memory scores for non-carriers of the APOE4 allele.
(b) there was no significant associations between cognitive performance and cholesterol levels were found for carriers of the APOE4 allele.
 
In conclusion the study found high cholesterol levels boost memory function for about 80% of the population and has no effect on the other 20%.

High fat foods STOP the decline in cognition

Published in Front Aging Neurosci. 2010 Jul 15;2. pii: 29.

Low HDL Cholesterol is Associated with Lower Gray Matter Volume in Cognitively Healthy Adults.
Ward MA, Bendlin BB, McLaren DG, Hess TM, Gallagher CL, Kastman EK, Rowley HA, Asthana S, Carlsson CM, Sager MA, Johnson SC.
Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Wm. S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital Madison, WI, USA.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20725527

The findings of the study suggest that adults with decreased levels of HDL cholesterol may be experiencing cognitive changes and Gray Matter reductions in regions associated with neurodegenerative disease and therefore, may be at greater risk for future cognitive decline.

The best way to raise your HDL cholesterol is to eat more saturated fat.

AMAZON UK The Diet Delusion
AMAZON USA Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage)

Learning, Your Memory, and Cholesterol

This post features an article by Chris Masterjohn and a recipe for buffalo-zucchini fritatta.

Learning, Your Memory, and Cholesterol
July, 2005 by Chris Masterjohn

One of the many important roles cholesterol plays in the body is in our nervous system, enabling learning and memory to take place. In fact, one of the reasons that sleep is beneficial to our learning and memory is because it enables our brain to make more cholesterol!

Books:

While the war on cholesterol is waged full-speed ahead, and many web sites are now touting low-fat, low-cholesterol diets as "brain-healthy" due to unfortunate misinterpretations about the role of a cholesterol byproduct in Alzheimer's disease, science is continually showing that cholesterol is one of the most important parts of our brains.

Sleep, Memory, Learning, and Cholesterol

Evidence to date strongly supports the concept that sleep plays an important role in increasing performance of newly learned activities, consolidating memories, and increasing brain plasticity-- which is the ability to form new, as well as break, connections between neurons called synapses.

These benefits of sleep are not simply the absence of stress from sleep-deprivation, but an independent, critical role, in the actual process of learning and memory-formation.1

But why?

Exciting research was published in the pages of Neuron last year (2004),2 identified about 100 genes that increase their activity during sleep. They found about as many that increased their activity during wake, and others whose activity varied with circadian rhythm, independent of sleep or wakefulness.

While there are many important cellular and molecular events that happen during sleep, and we are only cracking the surface in our understanding of them, one of the things this study showed is that cholesterol synthesis increases during sleep-- which, given the research described below, undoubtedly is part of the reason sleep is beneficial to mental functioning.

Cholesterol is abundant in the tissue of the brain and nervous system. Myelin, which covers nerve axons to help conduct the electrical impulses that make movement, sensation, thinking, learning, and remembering possible, is over one fifth cholesterol by weight.3

Even though the brain only makes up 2% of the body's weight, it contains 25% of its cholesterol.4

One of the groups of genes that the above study found to be upregulated during sleep were genes important for the synthesis and maintenance of myelin, including myelin structural proteins and genes relating to the synthesis and transport of cholesterol.

But the benefits of cholesterol extend beyond both sleep and myelin. In fact, in 2001, cholesterol was found to be the most important factor in the formation of synapses, the basis of our learning and memory.

Memories and Learning are Directly Dependent on Cholesterol

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, research was pointing to an unknown compound made by glial cells that was responsible for the ability of neurons to form synapses, or connections between each other.

Thoughts, memories, learning, and all mental function is dependent on the formation of synapses, so the ability to form them will directly impact mental functioning and health.

In the absence of this-- as yet unknown-- "glial factor," neurons formed few synapses, and the synapses they formed were inefficient and poorly functioning. In the presence of glial cells, which secrete the unknown factor, neurons formed many, highly efficient synapses.

So what is this "glial factor"?

Research in 2001, by Mauch, et al., published in volume 294 of Science magazine, determined that the unknown glial factor is cholesterol, which is released by the glial cells in a carrier called "apolipoprotein E."5

Initially, the researchers thought that the apolipoprotein E (apoE) may have been the glial factor itself. But it turned out that when neurons were treated with apoE, the beneficial effects on synapse formation were not observed.

The researchers then reasoned that, since apoE fit the bill in some ways, but did not have the desired effect, some of the lipids it carried may have been the elusive glial factor.

As it turned out, treating the neurons with a 10 mcg/mL solution of cholesterol increased synapse formation by 12 times! Other lipids, carried by apoE, such as phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, did not have a significant effect, and were even toxic to the neurons at very high doses.

On the other hand, when low-cholesterol glial secretions were produced by using the cholesterol-lowering drug, mevastatin, the effect of the glial secretion on synapse formation was strongly diminished. When cholesterol was added back to the low-cholesterol secretion, the positive effect on synapse formation was fully restored.

The authors identified cholesterol as a limiting factor of synpase formation. In other words, the need for cholesterol in the brain is large enough relative to the supply of cholesterol that the availability of cholesterol can directly limit the ability to form synapses.

Neurites Lose Their Way Without Cholesterol

"Neurites" refer to the extensions from the cell of a neuron that connect with other neurons or muscles. The type of neurite that sends impulses away from the cell is an axon, and the type of neurite that receives impulses is a dendrite.

Connections between neurons, called synapses, are contantly being formed and broken in our brains, where dendrites and axons meet.

But they can't just grow randomly. Neurites grow in response to a stimulus given by a signaling protein in the membranes of neurons.

These signaling proteins rely on lipid rafts, which are beds of cholesterol and phospholipids made from long-chain saturated fatty acids that secure some proteins.

A 2004 study found that disrupting lipid rafts by extracting some of the cholesterol from the membrane of a neuron completely destroyed the ability of neurons to find the signaling proteins attracting them!6

Statins Could Kill Your Memory — Eggs Could Cure It

We now know that the formation of synapses, or connections between neurons, is directly dependent on the availability of cholesterol.

The formation of these synapses are what give us the ability to remember and learn. The benefits of sleep for memory formation and learning are in part a result of increased cholesterol synthesis during sleep.

The implications are important and powerful. In our society's quest to lower cholesterol at all costs and without second thought, could some of the methods we use, such as taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, or eating low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, be limiting the availability of cholesterol to our nervous system?

The authors of the 2001 Science study described above concluded that the "results imply that genetic or age-related defects in the synthesis, transport, or uptake of cholesterol in the CNS may directly impair the development and plasticity of the synaptic circuitry."

But the authors left out one thing: in addition to genetic or age-related defects, there is currently a booming industry founded upon the deliberate inhibition of the synthesis of cholesterol using pharmaceutical drugs. Some statins cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB); others may affect cholesterol levels in the brain without necessarily crossing the BBB; still, without crossing the BBB, the peripheral nervous system could likewise be damaged.

In fact, amnesia and cognitive dysfunction are reported as side-effects in some statin users. Dr. Duane Graveline, MD, former NASA scientist and astronaut, describes his bout of statin-induced memory loss, in which his wife caught him wandering aimlessly in his yard while he failed to recognize her.

In an article on the side-effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs, the Geriatric Times cites two randomized trials, several case reports, and one large case series pointing to memory loss as a result of statin drugs.

Conversely, dietary cholesterol can help reverse the effects of declining memory with age.

Mary Enig, PhD, cites a study in her book, Know Your Fats, that found that the cholesterol in eggs can help improve memory in the elderly.5

Remember...

One of the basic parts of ourselves that defines us as humans is our mind. We imagine, think, study, learn, remember, come up with new ideas, remember old faces, and form friendships and familial relationships that are based, in large part, on our memories of those people.

Cholesterol is a central building block of the connections within our brain that hold these memories and learning processes together. Remember that... thanks to cholesterol, you can!

This article can be accessed at: http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Memory-And-Cholesterol.html

More information on this subject: Books : Scientific Studies : Other Websites : Videos : Food Mall 

Recipe of the day

Buffalo-Zucchini Fritatta

Makes 2 Servings

Ingredients:

Food Mall: Ground Buffalo

5 Eggs

4oz Ground Buffalo
1 Large Zucchini, grated

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs with a splash of water. Set aside.

In an omelet or saute pan over medium-high heat, cook the buffalo until browned and cooked through. Add the zucchini and stir.

Add the egg mixture.

Place pan in preheated oven and continue to cook until set, about 5-10 minutes (depending on pan).

Gently shake the pan to loosen the frittata and slide it onto a serving plate.
 

High cholesterol levels are associated with higher intelligence

This post includes a summary of a paper published in Psychosomatic Medicine 67:24-30 2005

Study title and authors:
Serum Cholesterol and Cognitive Performance in the Framingham Heart Study

Penelope K. Elias, PhD, Merrill F. Elias, PhD, Ralph B. D’Agostino, PhD, Lisa M. Sullivan, PhD and Philip A. Wolf, MD
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15673620

Cognitive performance is a measurement of learning, memory, attention/concentration, abstract reasoning, concept formation, and organizational abilities.

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between cholesterol levels and cognitive performance. Cognitive tests were administered to 789 men and 1105 women who were free of dementia and stroke and were then followed over a 16- to 18-year period.

The study found those with the highest cholesterol levels scored 80% higher in the cognitive tests compared to those with the lowest cholesterol levels.

The results of the study show that higher cholesterol levels are associated with higher intelligence.