Having high cholesterol and blood sugar in your mid-30s may increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) later in life, according to a new study.
The research found that lower HDL (high-density cholesterol) and high triglyceride levels measured in blood at age 35 are associated with higher incidence of Alzheimer’s decades later.
The researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) also found that high blood glucose measured between ages 51-60 is associated with risk of later-life Alzheimer’s.
Senior author Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD, chief of biomedical genetics at BUSM, said:
While our findings confirm other studies that linked cholesterol and glucose levels measured in blood with future risk of Alzheimer’s disease, we have shown for the first time that these associations extend much earlier in life than previously thought.”
The researchers used data from participants of the Framingham Heart Study who were examined approximately every four years throughout most of their adult lives.
Correlations of AD with multiple known risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes were measured at each exam and at three periods between the ages of 35-50, 51-60 and 61-70.
Risk factors included blood pressure, smoking, body mass index, glucose, HDL, LDL and triglycerides.
The researchers fund that lower ‘good cholesterol’ HDL predicts AD between the ages of 36-50 and 51-60 and that high glucose in the blood (a precursor of diabetes) during mid-adulthood is also predictive of AD.
“These findings show for the first time that cardiovascular risk factors, including HDL which has not been consistently reported as a strong risk factor for AD, contribute to future risk of AD starting as early as age 35,” said first and corresponding author Xiaoling Zhang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at BUSM.
Careful management of these risk factors from early adulthood could lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. the researchers said.
Farrer added:
“The unique design and mission of the Framingham Heart Study, which is a multi-generation, community-based, prospective study of health that began in 1948, allowed us to link Alzheimer’s to risk factors for heart disease and diabetes measured much earlier in life than possible in most other studies of cognitive decline and dementia.”
