Reviewing the labs with Dr. Goodenowe is something I encourage to learn the granular details and gain more insight . He has been really helpful to my patients and a biomedical scientist. I would call him up. I have taken his plasmalogens personally and they really have helped with focus and cognition.
Thanks for going to the trouble and expense of performing this experiment on yourself.
Alzheimer's is a multifactorial condition with no one root cause. There are different risk factors, among which two of the more important appear to be APOE-4 status and insulin resistance, and Alzheimer's is referred to by some researchers as "Type 3 Diabetes" for the latter reason. I'm currently reading a book on homocysteine levels, which are also linked. Human biochemistry is so complicated it's probably impossible to have a comprehensive understanding of all of it.
You may have seen in the news recently a report of a study published in the The Lancet that high HDL levels correlated with a greater risk of Alzheimer's. I personally have extraordinarily high HDL, and was motivated to spend some amount of time thinking about this. After a period of consideration, one of the things I realized was that in order to make my HDL levels go down, two actions that might help to do so would be to quit exercising and to dramatically increase my consumption of refined carbohydrates, in other words, to become much less healthy.
One of the authors I like but am hesitant to recommend because I think he is erratic and has a bit of an ego is Malcolm Kendrick from the UK, a pro-saturated fat, anti-statin drug person (he is an MD). One point he makes is that death can never be prevented, only delayed, and once you die of one thing, you can't die of something else. He also focuses on total mortality rate - a key takeaway from his work is that the highest total mortality rate for both men and women is seen with total cholesterol below 160 mg/dL. Why would this be, you ask? Well, low total cholesterol does imply low HDL, and there is data supporting low HDL as a risk factor for developing heart disease. That's why it was included as one of the five criteria for metabolic syndrome. Total cholesterol is not part of that assessment.
Anecdotally, Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" had a total cholesterol level of approximately 105 when he died, with an HDL of 37. He is certainly a data point in that high mortality range, and he also did not live anywhere near long enough to develop Alzheimer's Disease (he was 58 when he died).
Looking at the mortality rates from the study Kendrick reports on, a meta-analysis involving over 600,000 people done in the early 90's, the "sweet spot" for total cholesterol is actually right at 200 mg/dL. The lowest total mortality rate for men was seen between 160-200, and the lowest for women between 200-240. As is, lab results for total cholesterol are routinely flagged as "high" beginning at 200 mg/dL. My own total cholesterol was 227 mg/dL last time it was checked, and it was flagged. While I know this is absurd, most people, including perhaps the majority of healthcare practitioners, do not.
Back to Alzheimer's Disease, in the case of the associate from the site I work at who died suddenly last year at age 56 from a cardiovascular event related to a terrible diet and lack of exercise, I would point out two things: 1) he probably didn't have a very high HDL, and 2) he did not get anywhere near old enough to develop Alzheimer's.
I would contrast him with my mom, who is very healthy at age 80 and has an HDL of 99, which would qualify as "high" in the Lancet study. She will likely easily live to age 85, probably 90 or more, and the risk of developing Alzheimer's increases dramatically with age - it is about 50% at age 85+. Her high HDL is indicative of her health in general, and her healthy lifestyle has simply caused her to live long enough to have the opportunity to develop Alzheimer's at some point.
I think that performing thought experiments like this can be beneficial in helping to understand the actual elements that may be driving disease states. What is not helpful is jumping to conclusions - cholesterol is "bad;" thus, we shouldn't eat eggs or other high cholesterol foods. However, I believe that humans are naturally fearful and superstitious, and this is exactly what people do.
Interesting. Note that people usually call *L* DL the "bad cholesterol". HDL is the "good" kind, and most cardiologists would be happy with a 100 mg/dL. The Goodenowe book I referred includes a chart that concludes something similar to what you describe: a "sweet spot" that is neither too high or too low. Also, none of these factors matter in people over 60, which seems consistent with your mother's experience.
Yes, high LDL does correlate with higher mortality in some cases, particularly for men, and the 2nd highest total mortality rate in Kendrick's graph for men is for those with total cholesterol over 240 mg/dL. This uptick is heavily suppressed in the graph for women, likely because women have higher HDL on average, which is probably beneficial.
Reviewing the labs with Dr. Goodenowe is something I encourage to learn the granular details and gain more insight . He has been really helpful to my patients and a biomedical scientist. I would call him up. I have taken his plasmalogens personally and they really have helped with focus and cognition.
Also can you post outcome studies using plasmalogens. Like this one? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9203127/#:~:text=The%20anger%2Dhostility%20and%20fatigue,0.005%20for%20fatigue%2Dinertia).
Thanks! I updated the post , including my forgotten thank-you to you for first bringing plasmalogens to my attention.
Thanks for going to the trouble and expense of performing this experiment on yourself.
Alzheimer's is a multifactorial condition with no one root cause. There are different risk factors, among which two of the more important appear to be APOE-4 status and insulin resistance, and Alzheimer's is referred to by some researchers as "Type 3 Diabetes" for the latter reason. I'm currently reading a book on homocysteine levels, which are also linked. Human biochemistry is so complicated it's probably impossible to have a comprehensive understanding of all of it.
You may have seen in the news recently a report of a study published in the The Lancet that high HDL levels correlated with a greater risk of Alzheimer's. I personally have extraordinarily high HDL, and was motivated to spend some amount of time thinking about this. After a period of consideration, one of the things I realized was that in order to make my HDL levels go down, two actions that might help to do so would be to quit exercising and to dramatically increase my consumption of refined carbohydrates, in other words, to become much less healthy.
One of the authors I like but am hesitant to recommend because I think he is erratic and has a bit of an ego is Malcolm Kendrick from the UK, a pro-saturated fat, anti-statin drug person (he is an MD). One point he makes is that death can never be prevented, only delayed, and once you die of one thing, you can't die of something else. He also focuses on total mortality rate - a key takeaway from his work is that the highest total mortality rate for both men and women is seen with total cholesterol below 160 mg/dL. Why would this be, you ask? Well, low total cholesterol does imply low HDL, and there is data supporting low HDL as a risk factor for developing heart disease. That's why it was included as one of the five criteria for metabolic syndrome. Total cholesterol is not part of that assessment.
Anecdotally, Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" had a total cholesterol level of approximately 105 when he died, with an HDL of 37. He is certainly a data point in that high mortality range, and he also did not live anywhere near long enough to develop Alzheimer's Disease (he was 58 when he died).
Looking at the mortality rates from the study Kendrick reports on, a meta-analysis involving over 600,000 people done in the early 90's, the "sweet spot" for total cholesterol is actually right at 200 mg/dL. The lowest total mortality rate for men was seen between 160-200, and the lowest for women between 200-240. As is, lab results for total cholesterol are routinely flagged as "high" beginning at 200 mg/dL. My own total cholesterol was 227 mg/dL last time it was checked, and it was flagged. While I know this is absurd, most people, including perhaps the majority of healthcare practitioners, do not.
Back to Alzheimer's Disease, in the case of the associate from the site I work at who died suddenly last year at age 56 from a cardiovascular event related to a terrible diet and lack of exercise, I would point out two things: 1) he probably didn't have a very high HDL, and 2) he did not get anywhere near old enough to develop Alzheimer's.
I would contrast him with my mom, who is very healthy at age 80 and has an HDL of 99, which would qualify as "high" in the Lancet study. She will likely easily live to age 85, probably 90 or more, and the risk of developing Alzheimer's increases dramatically with age - it is about 50% at age 85+. Her high HDL is indicative of her health in general, and her healthy lifestyle has simply caused her to live long enough to have the opportunity to develop Alzheimer's at some point.
I think that performing thought experiments like this can be beneficial in helping to understand the actual elements that may be driving disease states. What is not helpful is jumping to conclusions - cholesterol is "bad;" thus, we shouldn't eat eggs or other high cholesterol foods. However, I believe that humans are naturally fearful and superstitious, and this is exactly what people do.
Interesting. Note that people usually call *L* DL the "bad cholesterol". HDL is the "good" kind, and most cardiologists would be happy with a 100 mg/dL. The Goodenowe book I referred includes a chart that concludes something similar to what you describe: a "sweet spot" that is neither too high or too low. Also, none of these factors matter in people over 60, which seems consistent with your mother's experience.
Yes, high LDL does correlate with higher mortality in some cases, particularly for men, and the 2nd highest total mortality rate in Kendrick's graph for men is for those with total cholesterol over 240 mg/dL. This uptick is heavily suppressed in the graph for women, likely because women have higher HDL on average, which is probably beneficial.