Cholesterol Reduction May Lower Dementia Risk
New findings suggest that lowering cholesterol levels might not only benefit heart health but also potentially decrease the risk of developing dementia. This insight emerges from a large-scale meta-analysis involving nearly a million participants.
The study indicates that common cholesterol-lowering medications, like statins and ezetimibe, could also support cognitive health. Researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK and the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark conducted the study, building on earlier research that connected high levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or LDL-C) with an increased dementia risk.
While the idea isn’t entirely new, this latest research provides one of the most detailed datasets available, reinforcing the notion that a link exists and that treatment options could potentially address both cholesterol and cognitive issues simultaneously.
“The present data suggests that cholesterol lowering earlier in life likely will reduce the risk of dementia later in life,” the researchers noted in their published findings.
This study approached the issue differently by analyzing genetic variants that lower cholesterol instead of tracking individuals taking cholesterol medications. This method, known as Mendelian Randomization, serves as a proxy for long-term use of statins.
Using genetic comparisons helps eliminate confounding variables, such as factors related to diet and exercise, which can be difficult to measure accurately. The researchers found a significant link between low cholesterol-related genes and a reduced risk of dementia, suggesting that biological pathways influenced by these genes—and targeted by statins—may also play a role in cognitive health.
According to clinical biochemist Liv Tybjærg Nordestgaard, who was involved in the study, having these genetic variants appears to be associated with a notably lower risk of developing dementia.
The Mendelian Randomization approach, combined with a robust dataset, supports the conclusion that possessing these genes—and thus maintaining lower cholesterol levels—likely contributes to a decreased risk of dementia.
The researchers propose that conditions like atherosclerosis, characterized by cholesterol buildup in blood vessels, could be crucial to understanding this pathology. This buildup could, in turn, result in brain damage, particularly since some forms of dementia are related to insufficient blood flow to the brain.
In light of these findings, the team aims to conduct clinical trials to observe how these cholesterol medications might protect the brain, which would help confirm their findings.
“It would be a really good next step to carry out randomized clinical trials over 10 or 30 years, for instance, to see how cholesterol-lowering medication might affect dementia risk,” Nordestgaard said.
The full research has been published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
