Medical researchers examining aging and dementia in 156 people over a 10 year period in NYC found that high LDL levels, total cholesterol levels or a history of diabetes worsened the cognitive decline in people who developed Alzheimer’s disease.

The study led by Yaakov Stern, PhD, director of the cognitive neuroscience division at Columbia University Medical School in New York City used data from a prospective epidemiologic study. His results were recently published in Archives of Neurology, 2009.

The study concluded that, “Higher prediagnosis total cholesterol and LDL-C concentrations and history of diabetes were associated with faster cognitive decline in patients with incident Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which provides further evidence for the role of vascular risk factors in the course of AD.”