Doctors have gotten so fanatical about giving medication to lower cholesterol and the government has promoted lowering cholesterol for so many years that people are proud of their low cholesterol levels. People want to get their cholesterol as low as possible, but no one talks about the cancer people get from this or the high incidence of depression, suicide, and violence with low cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol is essential to life. If you could get it low enough you would die. Fortunately, your body (liver) makes most of your cholesterol. Every cell in your body needs cholesterol. Cholesterol levels below 160 are linked to depression, suicide, psychological problems, cancer, kidney failure and more.

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Cancer 1992 Sep 1;70(5):1038-43

Serum cholesterol level, body mass index, and the risk of colon cancer. The Framingham Study.

Kreger BE, Anderson KM, Schatzkin A, Splansky GL.

Section of General Internal Medicine, Boston University Medical Center, Massachusetts.

BACKGROUND. Some studies have linked low serum cholesterol levels to increased risk of colon cancer, particularly in men. Results have been inconsistent, with preclinical disease frequently offered to explain any apparent association. METHODS. The Framingham Study cohort of 5209 persons, initially 30-62 years of age and observed more than 30 years, was evaluated. Baseline data included lipoprotein fractions, total cholesterol levels, body mass index, alcohol intake, and cardiovascular risk variables such as cigarette smoking, hypertension, and glucose intolerance. RESULTS. In this population, colon cancer in men is related inversely to serum cholesterol levels, even when the first 10 years of follow-up are eliminated to reduce the effect of preclinical disease. This effect is concentrated in the Svedberg 0-20 fraction, corresponding to low-density lipoprotein levels. Another finding only in men is the direct relation of body mass index to colon cancer incidence. CONCLUSIONS. Combined initial low serum cholesterol levels and obesity appear to indicate a four times greater risk for colon cancer in men as compared with people with average values of both variables. The reasons for these observations are unknown.

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www.westonaprice.org/oiling.html

NHLBI’s Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) studied the relationship between heart disease and serum cholesterol levels in 362,000 men and found that annual deaths from CHD varied from slightly less than one per thousand at serum cholesterol levels below 140 mg/dL, to about two per thousand for serum cholesterol levels above 300 mg/dL, once again a trivial difference. One MRFIT finding was that deaths from all causes—cancer, heart disease, accidents, infectious disease, kidney failure, etc.—were substantially greater for those men with cholesterol levels below 160 mg/dL. (“Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial; Risk Factor Changes and Mortality Results,” JAMA, September 24, 1982, 24812):1465)

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Br J Psychiatry 1993 Jun;162:818-25

Low serum cholesterol and suicide.

Hawthon K, Cowen P, Owens D, Bond A, Elliott M.

University Department of Psychiatry and Warneford Hospital, Oxford.

"Primary prevention trials which have shown that the lowering of serum cholesterol concentrations in middle-aged subjects by diet, drugs, or both leads to a decrease in coronary heart disease have also reported an increase in deaths due to suicide or violence. There has been no adequate explanation for this association. I have reviewed the relevant published work and describe a physiological mechanism that might account for this curious finding. One of the functions of serotonin in the central nervous system is the suppression of harmful behaviour impulses. When mouse brain synaptosomal membrane cholesterol is increased there is a pronounced increase in the number of serotonin receptors. Low membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors. Since membrane cholesterol exchanges freely with cholesterol in the surrounding medium, a lowered serum cholesterol concentration may contribute to a decrease in brain serotonin, with poorer suppression of aggressive behaviour".

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Epidemiology 2001 Mar;12(2):168-72

Low serum cholesterol concentration and risk of suicide.

Ellison LF, Morrison HI.

Cancer Bureau, Laboratory Center for Disease Control, Health Canada, Ottawa.

Recent reports have suggested a link between low serum total cholesterol and risk of death from suicide. We examined this association using participants in the 1970-1972 Nutrition Canada Survey. We determined the mortality experience of Nutrition Canada Survey participants older than 11 years of age at baseline through 1993 by way of record linkage to the Canadian National Mortality Database. The relation between low serum total cholesterol and mortality from suicide was assessed using a stratified analysis (N = 11,554). There were 27 deaths due to suicide. Adjusting for age and sex, we found that those in the lowest quartile of serum total cholesterol concentration (<4.27 mmol/liter) had more than six times the risk of committing suicide (rate ratio = 6.39; 95% confidence interval = 1.27-32.1) as did subjects in the highest quartile (>5.77 mmol/liter). Increased rate ratios of 2.95 and 1.94 were observed for the second and third quartiles, respectively. The effect persisted after the exclusion from the analysis of the first 5 years of follow-up and after the removal of those who were unemployed or who had been treated for depression. These data indicate that low serum total cholesterol level is associated with an increased risk of suicide.

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How Low Can You Go?
Study: Low Cholesterol May Pose Risk To Elderly Men
ABC News

S A N A N T O N I O, Tex., March 3 — Most people who want to avoid heart disease try to keep their cholesterol down. But a new study finds that lower may not always be better in elderly men.

Doctors have learned that in men over 70, a cholesterol level below 160 can be as dangerous as a level over 240.
"Some people who have low cholesterol and stay low are at high risk of dying," said Dr. David Curb of the University of Hawaii, who co-authored a study on the subject, released today on the last day of the American Heart Association convention in San Antonio.

"There's something happening between the ages of 50 and … 80," Curb adds. "There's real metabolic changes going on that we don't understand. I mean, because the cholesterol relationships are changing, the other lipid relationships are changing."

The study suggests that the best cholesterol range for older men is between 200 and 219.

Caution to Doctors

The finding that low cholesterol in elderly men is not necessarily a healthy thing might serve as a caution to doctors who treat patients for high cholesterol, say the study's authors.

"Very low cholesterol may also be associated with coronary heart disease, which suggests that caution may be warranted in lipid-lowering therapy in the very elderly patients," says Dr. Beatriz Rodriguez, also of the University of Hawaii.

ABC Radio's Jon Bascom contributed to this report