Good cholesterol helps heart, but study shows it also helps memory

by William Atkins

Sunday, 06 July 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! A new British-French study finds that people with higher levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL) performed better on memory tests than people with lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Cholesterol is a fatty substance made naturally by the human body. It is also found in many foods that people eat. High levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (or “good” cholesterol) can reduce the risk from heart attacks, strokes, and other heart related conditions that can also damage the brain. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (often called “bad" cholesterol) can build up in the walls of arteries of the human body. Such buildup can make them harder in texture than normal and more narrow than usually found in the healthy human body. HDL cholesterol, on the other hand, takes excess cholesterol back to the liver so it does not build up on artery walls. The authors of the study are Archana Singh-Manoux, David Gimeno, Mika Kivimaki, Eric Brunner, and Michael G. Marmot. They are associated with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, United Kingdom; and the Centre de Gérontologie, Hôpital Ste Périne France. Archana Singh-Manoux, who is a senior researcher in epidemiology at the University College London, led the study, whose results “Low HDL Cholesterol Is a Risk Factor for Deficit and Decline in Memory in Midlife. The Whitehall II Study” were published in the July 1, 2008 issue of the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. They state in the abstract to their paper, “The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fasting serum lipids and short-term verbal memory in middle-aged adults.” The researchers studied the levels of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides, and memory of 3,673 male and female civil servants from the United Kingdom. The British workers were given memory tests when, on average, they were 55 years of age and again at the average age of 61 years. The memory test consisted of twenty words, which they were asked to look at. The list was then taken away from them, and the subjects were asked to write down as many of the words as they could remember within two minutes of time. What was the results of the test? Please read on. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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