Study title and authors:
Is a high serum cholesterol level associated with longer survival in elderly hypertensives?
Staessen J, Amery A, Birkenhäger W, Bulpitt C, Clement D, de Leeuw P, Deruyttere M, De Schaepdryver A, Dollery C, Fagard R, et al.
Klinisch Laboratorium Hypertensie, Inwendige Geneeskunde-Cardiologie, U.Z. Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium.
This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2170516
The study, which lasted over three years, investigated the relationship between cholesterol levels and death rates in 822 elderly patients with high blood pressure.
The study found:
(a) The patients who had the highest cholesterol levels lived the longest.
(b) The patients who had the highest cholesterol levels had the lowest amount of deaths from cancer.
The results of the study show that high cholesterol levels are correlated with longer survival in elderly patients with high blood pressure.
Links to other studies:
Low cholesterol levels are associated with an increase in death rates especially from cancer
Analysis of 519,643 people reveals low cholesterol increases the risk of dying from pancreatic cancer by 27%
Low cholesterol is an independent risk factor for developing gastric cancer
