A Study finds that elderly with cholesterol less that 189 had double the 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 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. T’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.
We did a webinar on Cholesterol and how a lot of what we have been told about cholesterol for the last 40 years is not backed up by the research
Here is the link to go watch that Webinar on our Youtube Channel
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.