Low Cholesterol just as bad as...
Is your medical doctor pressuring you about your cholesterol number? They may not know!
Blood work results from a couple patient's I recently had tested, showed normal levels of total cholesterol even though they were both in the 115-120 range. Most lab reference/normall ranges of total cholesterol are between 150-200 but we all know about the unfounded disdain the medical profession seems to have with cholesterol- number 2 most importatnt anti-oxidant in the human body! Instead of telling patients with lower cholesterlol that they are more at risk of getting a terrible disease or having an early death, they give them a pat on the back and want the patient to be their new poster child for what the ideal cholesterol number should be.
I want to say that my late father was somethwat obsessed with the cholesterol number. When it came to listening to the Cardiologists on the subject, he drank the proverbial "coolaide". I only bring this up because years ago he told me his cholesterol was 104. I said, "dad that is way to low". He said his cardiologist said it can never be too low. I thought to myself "that should be a malpractice statement". Cholesterol levels as low as his indicate severe liver stress and death much sooner than later. He died a couple months after telling me how low his cholesterol was. He was on a low dose statin. So please research the dangers of statins on your own before just blindly following your doctor's advice. I just ran across this interesting article:
Study Finds that Low Cholesterol in Elderly Doubles Risk of Early Death
Study finds that elderly with cholesterol less that 189 had a double risk of dying.
Physicians were informed to consider very low levels of cholesterol as potential warning signs of a serious disease or as signals of rapidly declining health.
The study included 4520 men and women between the ages of 65-84.
The study concluded that low total cholesterol was associated with a higher risk of death.
Low cholesterol level is a robust predictor of mortality in the nondemented elderly and may be a surrogate of frailty or subclinical disease according to the research team.
Dr. Grisanti's Comments:
As more research is conducted, I am confident that the truth will prevail and show that cholesterol is not so bad after all. Unfortunately, I am saddened to say that there will be many unnecessary deaths due to people striving to lower cholesterol levels.
References:
Brescianini S, Maggi S, Farchi G, Mariotti S, Di Carlo A, Baldereschi M, Inzitari D; ILSA Group. Low total cholesterol and increased risk of dying: are low levels clinical warning signs in the elderly? Results from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003 Jul;51(7):991-6.
Schupf N, Costa R, Luchsinger J, Tang MX, Lee JH, Mayeux R. Relationship between plasma lipids and all-cause mortality in nondemented elderly. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2005 Feb;53(2):219-26.
