Dr. John Briffa
for The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
I came across an interesting review recently that focused on the role of nutrition in the condition Alzheimer’s disease. This form of dementia is characterized by the build-up in the brain of a protein known as ‘amyloid-beta’. One of the major points made in the paper is this: cholesterol and fat are really important to the brain. It points out that although the brain is only about 2 per cent of body weight, it contains about a quarter of the total cholesterol in the body.
The authors of the review point out several roles for cholesterol in the brain, including tiny structures called ‘synapses’. Synapses are the areas where one nerve cell can communicate with another. Communication here is via what are known as ‘neurotransmitters’, which are released by one nerve cell and float across the synaptic gap to exert an effect on the nerve adjacent to it.
The authors of the paper summarise the importance of cholesterol in the brain like this: “Cholesterol is required everywhere in the brain as an antioxidant, an electrical insulator (in order to prevent ion leakage), as a structural scaffold for the neural network, and a functional component of all membranes. Cholesterol is also utilized in the wrapping and synaptic delivery of the neurotransmitters. It also plays an important role in the formation and functioning of synapses in the brain.”
Read the Entire article here: http://www.thecholesteroltruth.com/could-low-cholesterol-cause-dementia
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