http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news/releases/display.php?id=883

Boston) ? What?s bad for your ticker may be good for your bean,
according to research from a team of scientists at Boston University.

The team looked at 18 years of data from the long-running Framingham
Heart Study and found an association between naturally high levels of
blood cholesterol and better mental functioning. The results were
recently published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

The research team, led by BU Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Research Assistant Professor Penelope Elias (now at University of Maine
at Orono) and including Merrill Elias, research professor of
epidemiology in BU?s Mathematics and Statistics Department, found a link
between naturally occurring high cholesterol and modestly better mental
function in areas such as visual organization, memory, attention, and
concentration. Unlike previous studies, the current research isolated
blood cholesterol from other well-known risk factors.

Along with high blood pressure, diabetes, and hypertension, high
cholesterol has long been known as a risk factor for heart disease and
stroke. However, the results of the new study showed that the higher the
natural level of cholesterol, the better participants did on tests of
mental ability. High cholesterol was defined as > 240 mg/dL as measured
in blood samples.

Less than two percent of the participants were being treated with
anti-cholesterol medication. Anti-cholesterol medications and diets as
well as risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption were
controlled for statistically.

Cholesterol is important for brain development in infants and plays a
role in how neurons work in adults. High blood cholesterol level is
still considered a risk factor for stroke and heart disease, however,
and physicians may decide that those risks outweigh any modest benefits
for cognitive function. Scientists have not yet determined whether
lowering cholesterol with medication will influence mental functioning.

?The result of lowering cholesterol with current medications may be
very different from naturally low cholesterol, said Merrill Elias. ?We
certainly need to evaluate what effect lowering cholesterol with
medication will have. We can?t yet generalize the results of our study
to people treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The authors emphasize that these findings do not provide a
justification for people to disregard their physician?s recommendations
with regard to medications for high cholesterol.

Researchers next must consider individual elements of total blood
cholesterol, such as LDL (low-density lipoproteins, commonly referred to
as ?bad cholesterol), HDL (high-density lipoproteins, or ?good
cholesterol), and triglycerides, and whether one or more of these
elements is responsible for the results.

The Framingham Heart Study began in 1955 and has followed three
generations of participants, measuring the incidence of cardiovascular
disease and stroke and determining the risk of various associated
factors. The study, based in Framingham, Mass., started before
cardiovascular risk factors for heart disease and stroke were well
understood and before patients were routinely treated with
cholesterol-lowering medications.

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Boston University
offers a strong research environment in algebra, applied statistics,
dynamical systems and their applications, geometry, mathematical
neuroscience and biology, mathematical physics, number theory, partial
differential equations, and probability. The department includes the
Center for Biodynamics and the Statistics and Consulting Unit, which
provides statistical support and consulting services for Framingham
Heart Study investigators and for research projects and clinical trials
in the United States and elsewhere.

Boston University, with an enrollment of more than 29,000 in its 17
schools and colleges, is the fourth-largest independent university in
the United States