Low LDL-Cholesterol = Higher Occurrence of Parkinson's Disease?

Filed in archive Studies on December 19, 2006

New research from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that people with low levels of LDL cholesterol are more likely to have Parkinson's disease than people with high LDL levels.

Low levels of LDL-cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol are equated to indication of good cardiovascular health.

But increases the risk of Parkinson disease?

According to Dr. Xuemei Huang, medical director of the Movement Disorder Clinic at UNC Hospitals and an assistant professor of Neurology in the UNC School of Medicine:

"People with Parkinson's disease have a lower occurrence of heart attack and stroke than people who do not have the disease. Parkinson's patients are also more likely to carry the gene APOE-2, which is linked with lower LDL cholesterol.

If my hypothesis was correct, lower LDL-C, something that is linked to healthy hearts, would be associated with a higher occurrence of Parkinson's.

We found that lower LDL concentrations were indeed associated with a higher occurrence of Parkinson's disease. Participants with lower LDL levels (less than 114 milligrams per deciliter) had a 3.5-fold higher occurrence of Parkinson's than the participants with higher LDL levels (more than 138 milligrams per deciliter)."

The research results (which confirmed the hypothesis) have been published online Dec. 18 by the journal Movement Disorders.

However the author warned that such results were too preliminary and should not be reason for people to change their eating habits, nor their use of statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Read the full report at Science Daily.

[Photo Credit: foxnews.webmd.com]