Low level of 'bad cholesterol' increases death rate, researchers find

mainichi japan ^ | March 29, 2008

[Mount Athos]

Health food of the future:

[Kolokotronis]

Great time of year for that picture, MA! :)

[aruanan]

Researchers found that in terms of overall deaths, men and women in the group with the lowest LDL cholesterol level (79 milligrams per deciliter of blood or less) had the highest death rate.

Duh. Cholesterol is essential in tissue formation, especially that of nerves. Also, there is no such thing as LDL cholesterol. Low Density Lipoprotein is the name of the protein in the cholesterol transport particle, same for HDL used in reverse cholesterol transport.

[Ole Okie]

Approximately what I had for supper times 2.

LDL = 72.

Age = 81

[Rennes Templar]

The entire cholesterol issue is junk science, motivated by greedy pharmaceuticals.

[Shady]

Anybody remember Sleeper?
Hilarious!
My LDL is way down, so I better start eating butter!

[JustDoItAlways]

This is really unbelievable.

Think about how many millions of Americans and people around the world are taking cholesterol lowering drugs (with all the side-effects that result including an increased death-rate.)

This rather large long-term study is going to be a BIG shocker to the medical community.

[A_perfect_lady]

My grandma lived 93 years on a diet of butter, salt, and bacon fat. She didn’t have much of a waistline, it is true, but she was strong and healthy.

[Tax-chick]

Wow! My husband needs to see this (the article, not the bacon sandwich) and consider the information next time he sees the doctor.

[Mamzelle]

A difficult article to understand—”death rate” can be misleading.

[bkepley]

The entire cholesterol issue is junk science, motivated by greedy pharmaceuticals.

No offense but that sounds exactly like moonbat reasoning. Many if not most heart surgeons consider bad cholesterol to be enemy numero uno. Now a moonbat will say the doctors are part of the conspiracy but personally I suspect that besides water everything we consume has benefits and costs and we'll never reach the end of these studies.

[ChildOfThe60s]

It is interesting that this should find its way into the news at the same time the US medical establishment is lowering what they consider (claim) to be safe cholesterol numbers.

Dogma now is a max of 180 (overall). Lemmings. Follow the money.

[Bob]

A difficult article to understand—”death rate” can be misleading.

Has the "death rate" ever been less than 100.0%?

[mamelukesabre]

Uh, oh. According to this article, your’re going to die.

[blam]

"It is interesting that this should find its way into the news at the same time the US medical establishment is lowering what they consider (claim) to be safe cholesterol numbers."

Yup. When my doctor recently doubled my cholesterol medicine, I quit taking it completely.

[Mamzelle]

Those docs prescribing drugs to lower "bad" cholesterol know that the correlation between heart disease and cholesterol levels is not proven--it's even on the med's readout in tiny print.

They have been able to get reliable evidence from the raising of "good" cholesterol.

[kittymyrib]

Since the human brain needs cholesterol to function properly, getting the rate too low also can bring on dementia. It is good that the Japanese are raising this issue because our doctors would rather keep prescribing Lipitor and Vytorin than look into the possible harm they can do.

[television is just wrong]

a balanced diet with exercise is the BEST requirements for a healthy life.

You have to listen to what your body is telling you.

[Spunky]

"The entire cholesterol issue is junk science, motivated by greedy pharmaceuticals"

I agree with you whole heartedly. My husbands doctor kept trying to get his LDL down as low as he possible could by upping his dosage, changing the cholesterol medication etc. My husband got to where he could hardly function. Finally I said enough is enough.

[television is just wrong]

I have read numerous times that the homocysteine levels in your blood are way more important than cholesterol.