Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease refers to various heart related conditions that are usually caused by smoking, obesity, an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise. Recent studies have pointed to cardiovascular disease being related to Alzheimer’s disease. (1) A systematic review and meta analysis by PLOS concluded that “coronary heart disease is prospectively associated with increased odds of developing cognitive impairment or dementia.” (2) A cross sectional study on 1,307 women with Cardiovascular disease who participated in a randomized trial showed a significant increase in cognition when their levels of LDL decreased. LDL is the “bad” cholesterol in the body that transports fat molecules around the body. (2) “In addition, when examining changes in plasma cholesterol levels over the previous 4 years, there were significant trends of better scores on the modified MMSE with decreasing levels of total or LDL cholesterol.” This shows that reducing an element, such as LDLs, that cause cardiovascular disease have shown improvements in cognitive abilities. High levels of LDLs are not only a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but has shown to increase risks of getting Alzheimer's disease as well. (3) Another review, from Elsevier, accounts the connections between Alzheimer’s disease and Cardiovascular disease. It discusses how these diseases share important risk factors that occur in middle aged to elderly populations, and what the trends of cardiovascular diseases are in Alzheimer’s patients. For example, a prospective population based study found that people with diabetes were twice as likely to have dementia and Alzheimer's disease. These study show the strong connection between cardiovascular health and the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Extra Links:

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm