Kidney failure patients live longer if they have high cholesterol

This study was published in Kidney International 2002 May;61(5):1887-93

Study title and authors:

Hypocholesterolemia is a significant predictor of death in a cohort of chronic hemodialysis patients.

Iseki K, Yamazato M, Tozawa M, Takishita S.

Dialysis Unit and Third Department of Internal Medicine, University of The Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. chihokun@med.u-ryukyu.ac.jp

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11967041

The study investigated the impact of cholesterol levels in kidney failure patients receiving hemodialysis treatment. The study included 1,167 hemodialysis patients who were followed for ten years.

The study found that 12.7% more patients survived who had the highest cholesterol, above 220 mg/dL (5.7 mmol/L), compared to the patients with the lowest cholesterol, below 140 mg/dL (3.6 mmol/L).

Low levels of cholesterol are predictive of higher rates of death in patients with end-stage renal disease

This study was published in Nephron Clinical Practice 2011;119(3):c214-9

Study title and authors:
Reverse epidemiology of lipid-death associations in a cohort of end-stage renal disease patients.

Bowden RG, La Bounty P, Shelmadine B, Beaujean AA, Wilson RL, Hebert S.
School of Education, Baylor University, Waco, Tex., USA.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21832847

End-stage kidney disease is the complete or almost complete failure of the kidneys to work. Reverse epidemiology is a term which says that obesity and high cholesterol may be protective and associated with greater survival in disease.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are reverse epidemiological associations between cholesterol and mortality in end-stage renal disease patients. 438 patients with end-stage renal disease were tracked for 36 months.

The study found that low levels of cholesterol (including the so called "bad" LDL cholesterol) were predictive of higher rates of death in patients with end-stage renal disease.

High cholesterol is a marker for longevity

This study was published in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care 2007 Jul;10(4):433-42

Study title and authors:
Risk factor paradox in wasting diseases.

Kalantar-Zadeh K, Horwich TB, Oreopoulos A, Kovesdy CP, Younessi H, Anker SD, Morley JE.

Harold Simmons Center for Kidney Disease Research and Epidemiology, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Center at Harbor-UCLA, Torrance, California 90509-2910, USA. kamkal@ucla.edu

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17563461

Kalantar-Zadeh reviewed the literature concerning cholesterol levels and wasting diseases and found that having high cholesterol leads to higher survival rates in people with chronic kidney disease, chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive lung disease, cancer, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, and in the elderly.