Dementia: A Good Reason to Check Your Cholesterol
If you think cholesterol levels are only related to heart attack risk, a study by Kaiser Permanente gives another important reason to keep your cholesterol level in check: dementia. Nearly 10,000 individuals participated in a 40 year study found that cholesterol levels of over 240 increased risk of dementia by 66%. Check out the details at esciencenews.com Even scarier, levels from 200-239 increased risk by over 50%. It is very easy and cheap to have your cholesterol checked and there are many new drugs that will lower your cholesterol with few side effects if diet, exercise and lifestyle changes don’t do the trick. If you only have 100 years to live, don’t live the last 30 in a fog. Take care of your cholesterol.
High colesterol not only places your cardiovascular system (and thus your life) at risk, but it can lead to stroke, which is also potentially life threatening, as well as dimentia. All of these and others are very good reasons for keeping your lipid profile within optimum values. Fail to do so at your own risk.
Makes me think even more that those who choose lifestyles that are not reasonably healthy should pay more for health insurance — after all they are the ones who are at greatest risk for the most serious and expensive health probles. Why should we have to pay for teir foolishness?
We sort of do that with taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. How about a tax on high fat foods?