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

Saturday 23 March 2013

High cholesterol levels are associated with a reduced risk of cancer

This study was published in PLoS One 2013;8(1):e54242
 
Study title and authors:
Total serum cholesterol and cancer incidence in the metabolic syndrome and cancer project (me-can).
Strohmaier S, Edlinger M, Manjer J, Stocks T, Bjørge T, Borena W, Häggström C, Engeland A, Nagel G, Almquist M, Selmer R, Tretli S, Concin H, Hallmans G, Jonsson H, Stattin P, Ulmer H.
Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
 
This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23372693

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between cholesterol levels and cancer incidence. The study included 289,273 male and 288,057 female participants who were followed for 11.7 years.

The study found:
(a) Men with the highest cholesterol levels had a 6% reduced risk of cancer compared with men with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(b) Men with the highest cholesterol levels had a 86% reduced risk of cancer of the liver/intrahepatic bile duct compared with men with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(c) Men with the highest cholesterol levels had a 48% reduced risk of pancreas cancer compared with men with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(d) Men with the highest cholesterol levels had a 33% reduced risk of non-melanoma skin cancer compared with men with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(e) Men with the highest cholesterol levels had a 32% reduced risk of cancers of the lymph-/hematopoietic tissue compared with men with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(f) Women with the highest cholesterol levels had a 14% reduced risk of cancer compared with women with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(g) Women with the highest cholesterol levels had a 77% reduced risk of gallbladder cancer compared with women with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(h) Women with the highest cholesterol levels had a 30% reduced risk of breast cancer compared with women with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(i) Women with the highest cholesterol levels had a 39% reduced risk of melanoma of skin cancer compared with women with the lowest cholesterol levels.
(j) Women with the highest cholesterol levels had a 39% reduced risk of cancers of the lymph-/hematopoietic tissue compared with women with the lowest cholesterol levels.

The data from the study shows that high cholesterol levels are associated with a reduced risk of cancer.

 
 
Links to other studies: