Parkinson's Disease and LDL--Is There A Connection?

Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have discovered that there might be a connection between Parkinson's disease and LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol). The scientists examined the lipid profiles of 136 patients (124 patients had Parkinson's disease and 112 patients were controls) and found that patients with lower LDL levels had almost a four-fold chance of having Parkinson's disease. Another interesting discovery in this research was that patients taking cholesterol lowering medications had a lower incidence of having Parkinson's disease. This is very preliminary research and requires further investigation, however, this research opens the possibility that cholesterol may play a role in other disease processes besides heart disease. This research was published last week in the Journal of Movement Disorders.