



Review by Duane Graveline MD MPH:



One might ask why, with the thousands of books that have been written about Alzheimer's disease, I should choose this book by Henry Lorin, an obscure member of the health care team whose only claim to authority in this disease is to observe his step-father die before his eyes - of Alzheimer's.



This man is an independent researcher who has come on to a novel interpretation of the Alzheimer's story. After a comprehensive review of the literature he has focused on a compelling role for cholesterol insufficiency as the fundamental cause of this disease, excepting only those relatively few associated with heredity, trauma or debilitating conditions.



Since I am focused on the wide scale use of statin drugs, designed purely to decrease the synthesis of cholesterol, naturally I was attracted to his hypothesis. He begins his story well:

There is a bias against cholesterol in the medical and medical research worlds, Lorin acknowledges. This is parallel to the bias in the health and medical agencies of the government, in the health book publishing business, and in many parts of the food processing industry.

He understands why this bias exists. It is because heart disease is a major killer of people in the industrialized nations and most importantly, it is because people have been conditioned to believe that heart disease is caused purely by cholesterol in the foods we eat. Then Lorin acknowledges that cholesterol is not only the most important molecule in our bodies, it is practically the only one that is common to all of the different types of cell membranes in the organs and tissues.

Ordinarily the demand for cholesterol is high but under certain conditions demand exceeds supply introducing the second major actor in this Alzheimer's play, amyloid. All cells have a ready supply of amyloid in the form of amyloid prescursor protein. When cholesterol is needed but cannot be supplied it is this amyloid that becomes an emergency, temporary filler.