Pieces coming together in Parkinson's, cholesterol puzzle

[Guest guest]

Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own

opinion. I have no further knowledge of the topic. If you do not wish to

receive these posts, set your email filter to filter out any messages

coming from @nutritionucanlivewith.com and the program will remove

anything coming from me.

---------------------------------------------------------

Public release date: 4-Apr-2008

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/uonc-pct040408.php

Contact: Patric Lane

patric_lane@...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Pieces coming together in Parkinson's, cholesterol puzzle

CHAPEL HILL – In 2006, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

researchers published a study that found people with low levels of LDL

cholesterol are more likely to have Parkinson's disease than people with

high LDL levels.

But that study could not answer the question of whether low LDL

(low-density lipoprotein) levels were present in study participants

before they were diagnosed with Parkinson’s, or if they developed low

LDL levels after being diagnosed.

Now a follow-up study led by UNC researchers in collaboration with

colleagues in Virginia, Hawaii and Japan has found that low LDL levels

were present in a group of men of Japanese ancestry long before these

men were diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

“This finding gives us one more piece in the puzzle about the role of

cholesterol in Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Xuemei Huang, the study’s

principal investigator. Huang is also medical director of the Movement

Disorder Clinic at UNC Hospitals and an assistant professor of neurology

in the UNC School of Medicine.

“What makes these results especially useful is the fact that most of the

men in this study were not taking cholesterol-lowering drugs such as

statins,” Huang said. “This suggests that the association between low

LDL levels and Parkinson’s exists independently from statin use, which

helps answer another important question raised by our earlier study.”

The new study was published online this week by the journal Movement

Disorders. Huang is the lead author. Her co-authors include Drs. G.

Webster Ross and Helen Petrovitch, who are both with the Pacific Health

Research Institute, the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care

System and the University of Hawaii; Dr. D. Abbott of the

University of Virginia and Shiga University in Japan; and Dr. B.

Mailman, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the UNC School of

Medicine.

Low levels of LDL cholesterol are clearly associated with good

cardiovascular health. Huang’s research adds to a growing literature

indicating that people with low LDL may be at greater risk for

developing Parkinson’s.

“Our study again shows an association between low cholesterol and the

risk of Parkinson’s disease, but we have not shown cause and effect,”

Huang said. “People taking statins for valid medical reasons should not

stop simply to avoid Parkinson’s.”

For this prospective study, fasting lipids were measured from 1991 to

1993 in a group of 3,233 men of Japanese ancestry who took part in a

long-running study called the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. These data were

collected before statin therapy for lowering cholesterol was widely

available. When followed for about ten years, the incidence of

Parkinson’s disease increased with decreasing levels of LDL cholesterol.

After adjusting their statistical analysis for age, smoking, coffee

intake and other factors, the researchers calculated that the relative

odds of Parkinson’s for men with lower LDL levels (85 milligrams per

deciliter) was about twice that of those with higher LDL levels (135

milligrams per deciliter). They concluded that this study supports the

hypothesis that low LDL levels are associated with an increased future

risk of Parkinson’s.

Huang said more research is needed to confirm these findings, with

logical next steps including conducting studies with larger sample sizes

and that include women and African-Americans.

###

The paper on the study, titled “Low LDL cholesterol and increased risk

of Parkinson's disease: Prospective results from Honolulu-Asia Aging

Study,” can be found at

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/77502481/ issue.

Note: Huang can be reached at or huangx@....

School of Medicine contact: Crayton, ,

scrayton@...

--

ne Holden, MS, RD

" Ask the Parkinson Dietitian " http://www.parkinson.org/

" Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease "

" Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy "

http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/