People with low levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, a type of bad cholesterol) have an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Low LDL levels are good news for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, but a new study by researchers at the Center for Movement Disorders at North Carolina University concluded that low levels of this indicator are not good for Parkinson’s disease. In fact, people with Parkinson’s disease have a lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke than people of the same age, and people with Parkinson’s disease are also more likely to carry the APOE-2 gene, which is associated with low LDL cholesterol. In that study, subjects with low LDL levels (below 114 mg/dl) had a 3.5-fold higher risk of Parkinson’s disease than subjects with high LDL levels (above 138 mg/dl). However, it does not mean that people (including those with Parkinson’s disease) need to change their dietary habits or alter their use of lipid-lowering medications now, as this report is still a preliminary study with a small sample size of participants, pending further in-depth studies.