Man: Hey, Should You be Eating that?

Chicken: No… Not Really.. But I say FORGET the cholesterol… I’m eating what I want!

Title: Which ATE first, the chicken or the egg?

Cholesterol levels could lead to a diagnosis of dementia, according to a study reported in the Archives of Neurology.

“Studies like this are extremely valuable because they can provide a ‘window’ on to processes going on early in dementia, allowing researchers to look back in time at people’s health and other characteristics and compare these between people who develop dementia and those who do not,” Dr. Robert Stewart from King’s College London, told Reuters Health.” Stewart and colleagues used data from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study to compare the natural history of changes in cholesterol levels over a 26-year period among 56 men who had dementia at examination three years after the last cholesterol measurement, and 971 men who did not have dementia.

Results Cholesterol levels in men with dementia and, in particular, those with Alzheimer disease had declined at least 15 years before the diagnosis and remained lower than cholesterol levels in men without dementia throughout that period. The difference in slopes was robust to adjustment for potential confounding factors, including vascular risk factors, weight change, alcohol intake, and use of lipid-lowering agents.

Conclusion A decline in serum total cholesterol levels may be associated with early stages in the development of dementia.

To read the whole study check out this PDF file.

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    Last reviewed: 25 Oct 2010