Midlife Triglyceride Levels and Alzheimer Disease Pathology

Published in the journal Neurology, a longitudinal cohort study assessed fasting triglyceride levels in 318 cognitively normal patients (mean age 54 years) “to evaluate the effect of midlife lipid levels on Alzheimer brain pathology.”¹

Twenty years later, follow-up CSF and PET studies in the same, now elderly, patients (mean age 73 years) found higher triglycerides were associated with abnormal amyloid and tau pathologies.

The authors concluded that these findings lend credence to the role of lipids in the early stages of Alzheimer disease.

References:

1. Nägga K, Gustavsson AM, Stomrud E, et al. Increased midlife triglycerides predict brain β-amyloid and tau pathology 20 years later. Neurology. 2018;90:e73-e81.