There is no doubt that Alzheimer’s is one of the scariest conditions out there so you should want to do whatever possible to avoid developing this incurable disease later in life.
That being said, according to a new study, getting your glucose and cholesterol levels in check at a young age could really make a difference!
Chief of biomedical genetics at the Boston University School of Medicine and the study’s senior author, Lindsay Farrer, and her team have found that lower high-density “good” cholesterol as well as high triglyceride levels registered in people of age 35 can be directly linked to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Another conclusion the scientists reached was that registering high blood glucose levels between the ages of 51 and 60 can also be associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s later on in life.
“While our findings confirm other studies that previously linked cholesterol and glucose levels in blood with future risk of Alzheimer’s disease, we’ve shown for the first time these associations extend much earlier in life than previously thought,” Farrer explained.
The study has been published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
This isn’t the first time that high LDL is linked to a higher Alzheimer’s risk, but in past studies, these associations were deemed inconclusive.
For this new study, the experts used data from participants of the Framingham Heart Study, all of whom were examined through most of their adult lives in 4 year intervals.
They found that lower HDL is predictive of Alzheimer’s risk between the ages of 35 and 50 as well as between 51 and 60.
Another conclusion was that high glucose in the blood in those age groups is also predictive of Alzheimer’s risk in addition to increasing the risk of diabetes.
In other words, if you manage these factors early on in your life, not only will you be able to lower your risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease but also Alzheimer’s!
Farrer explains that “Intervention targeting cholesterol and glucose management starting in early adulthood can help maximize cognitive health in later life. The unique design of the Framingham Heart Study, which is a multigeneration, community based, prospective study of health that started in 1948, allowed us to link Alzheimer’s to risk factors for heart disease and for diabetes measured much earlier in life than possible in most studies of cognitive decline and dementia.”
