Researchers at University College London and the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (the French equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of health) conducted by Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux measured good HDL cholesterol levels of 3,673 55-year-old British civil servants and asked them to memorize 20 words as part of short-term memory test.
It found that at age 55, the subjects with lower HDL levels had a 27 percent increased risk of memory loss compared with those with high HDL. The same subjects, tested again at age 60, showed an even greater difference in memory linked to HDL levels.
Previous research has linked HDL cholesterol with reducing the risk of heart disease. The study appears in the American Heart Association's journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
Researchers believe that since good cholesterol or HDL has the ability to keep bad cholesterol out of the arteries, it deceases the risk of heart attack and strokes. This reduces the damage to the brain that many suffer as a consequence of the ailments including dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
The HDL may improve the connections between nerves in the brain, thus keeping the disease at bay. It also helps control the formation of beta analoids, that are major component found in Alzheimer's patients, ABC news reports quoted the experts.
However, the researchers caution that the study merely reveales an association between levels of HDL cholesterol and risk of memory loss, meaning that lower HDL levels could be an effect rather than the cause for the condition.
Statins, medications designed to lower cholesterol, can improve both LDL and HDL levels. Eliminating trans fats and reducing intake of all fats from the diet may raise HDL cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association. Researchers also advise to consume olive, canola and peanut oils and drink cranberry juice to raise HDL levels.
