A man took ezetimibe (Zetia) hoping it might protect his brain from Alzheimer's. His LDL cholesterol dropped 56% as a side effect. He cites a case review showing ezetimibe users had roughly eight times lower risk of Alzheimer's, though the evidence is preliminary.
This is what happened to my cholesterol from doing one little thing. It dropped by over half. 56%. 288 mg/dL drop in LDL. But here's the twist. I wasn't doing this to lower my cholesterol in the first place. I was trying to help my brain. But can you guess what this little thing was? It's a medication called ezetimibe, or Zetia. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. But it's often thought of as just a sidekick cholesterol-lowering drug that acts mostly in the gut. But that's totally wrong. Research shows that it can actually cross into the brain and might do something good once there. You see, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions are caused by protein misfolding. It's like bad origami in your brain. This leads to brain clutter and ultimately cognitive decline. But ezetimibe, it interrupts one key protein-protein interaction that leads to some of this misfolding, this bad origami in the brain. Potentially protecting your brain. In fact, in a review of patient cases, those taking ezetimibe had an 8-fold lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The data aren't perfect, but they're promising, and that's enough for me. But if you want the full story, see the longer video and subscribe for more nuanced health content.
