“Overall, high cholesterol was associated with a bad cognitive [mental] decline, but when we look only at people who were in good cognitive health at 85, a rising cholesterol was associated with a better outcome,” Silverman said. “It’s such that people who are making it who remain alive and who have high cholesterol are more likely to carry other factors that protect them against the bad effects of cholesterol,” he explained. “We don’t think that having a high cholesterol becomes a good thing — it’s just that you’re likely to be the kind of person for whom cholesterol doesn’t matter,” he explained. Silverman doesn’t think that cholesterol itself is protective against mental decline, but that other factors protect against the bad effects of cholesterol. “We can focus specifically on those old people with high cholesterol and look for factors that protect them from cognitive decline,” he said.
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