HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE: Low cholesterol is associated with increased mortality in 35-74 year olds

The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Low cholesterol is associated with increased mortality in 35-74 year olds

Ignore the Awkward.: How the Cholesterol Myths Are Kept Alive

Books:

This paper was published in the Journal of clinical epidemiology 1992 Jun;45(6):595-601

Study title and authors:

The low cholesterol-mortality association in a national cohort. Harris T, Feldman JJ, Kleinman JC, Ettinger WH Jr, Makuc DM, Schatzkin AG.

National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD 20782.

The paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1607898

The relationship of low cholesterol and mortality was examined in 10,295 persons aged 35-74.

The study found:
(a) Women whose cholesterol was below 4.1 mmol/l (158 mg/dL) had a 70% increased risk of death in comparison with women whose cholesterol was up to 5.1 mmol/l (197 mg/dL).
(b) Men whose cholesterol was below 4.1 mmol/l (158 mg/dL) had a 40% increased risk of death in comparison with men whose cholesterol was up to 5.1 mmol/l (197 mg/dL).

The results of the study demonstrate that low cholesterol is associated with an earlier death in both men and women.