A Healthy Brain for Life: How to Prevent Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Memory Loss by Richard Furman

Author:Richard Furman [Furman, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493412570
Amazon: B07VQMQKQY
Publisher: Revell
Published: 2020-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

HDL Cholesterol

Doctors rarely talk to patients about the importance of a higher level of HDL cholesterol for the health of their arteries. Doctors usually talk about LDL cholesterol. There are many fewer HDL particles in the total cholesterol number than LDL, so when the doctor speaks of total cholesterol, HDL gets overlooked. What I want you to remember is that HDL is as important as LDL in understanding how damage to our arteries comes about and what can be done to protect them.

Cholesterol is a double-edged sword. I think if there were some pill that could raise HDL, it would be prescribed as often as the LDL-lowering pill. I say this because the American Heart Association places a significantly low HDL in the category of being a primary cause of heart disease.

A low HDL, below a designated point, is as bad as hypertension or obesity when it comes to potentially having a heart attack. The number 40 is the cutoff, but this is mentioned just to emphasize that the lower the number of the hero HDL cholesterol, the fewer particles to carry off excess LDL cholesterol you have. You want as many extra HDL particles as possible to attack the LDL cholesterol. Doctors should stress that exercise and losing weight raise HDL because there is no medication doctors can write a prescription for. By heeding the advice in this book, you’ll know how to improve your hero HDL cholesterol to protect the arteries going to your brain and in the brain itself.

HDL and Memory

HDL cholesterol can actually reduce the amount of LDL in your blood. But does it play a role in our mental abilities? If my HDL were high rather than low, would I score better on those mental tests given to people being followed for MCI or Alzheimer’s?

We find part of the answer in a study of over 3,500 men and women in which their HDL cholesterol levels were measured. The participants were followed for five years, and at the end of the study, the individuals who had the lowest HDL levels scored the lowest on the memory tests while the higher HDL participants scored higher. There could be several explanations for these results. Higher HDL could have a protective effect on the arteries in the brain, lessening chances of stroke and arterial damage because of its effect on the LDL particles. Or high HDL could possibly have a direct effect on preventing the accumulation of beta-amyloid. Or it may even have an anti-inflammatory or antioxidant effect on the brain’s neurons. But whatever the process, the individuals who had the higher HDL cholesterol scored higher on their mental testing than the ones with lower amounts.

There is so much we don’t know about what causes the beta-amyloid plaques or what direct effect each causative factor plays in the development of Alzheimer’s. Neither is there absolute understanding how certain risk factors play a role in the disease.

However, we can look at different lifestyles within different groups of people and compare one against the other.

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