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Can Cholesterol Be Too Low?

The connection between cancer and cholesterol.

March 30, 2011 |
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Can Cholesterol Be Too Low?, 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

Sources Cited

Jacobs EJ, Gapstur SM. Cholesterol and cancer: answers and new questions. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Nov;18(11):2805-6.

Platz EA, Till C, Goodman PJ, Parnes HL, Figg WD, Albanes D, Neuhouser ML, Klein EA, Thompson IM Jr, Kristal AR. Men with low serum cholesterol have a lower risk of high-grade prostate cancer in the placebo arm of the prostate cancer prevention trial. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Nov;18(11):2807-13. Epub 2009 Nov 3.

Acknowledgements

Image thanks to Sean Lucas.

Transcript

Can our cholesterol be too low, though? In the 80’s some studies came out showing that many people dying from cancer have really low cholesterol. There are two possible explanations for this correlation: the cancer led to the low cholesterol, or, maybe, low cholesterol led to cancer—that wouldn’t be good. To this day there are doctors telling people not to let their cholesterol get too low based on that data. Are they right? Can our bad cholesterol—LDL—be too low?
The answer is no. It appears our cholesterol can never be too low; the lower the better. Brand new studies have put the controversy to rest. In fact, the opposite may be true. Lower cholesterol means less heart disease risk, and now we know it may lower cancer risk as well.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on cholesterol. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos--please feel free to explore them as well!

For more context, check out my associated blog post, Stool Size and Breast Cancer Risk.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on cholesterol. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Dr. Greger, I came across a question asked by my uncle that I did not have the answer too. He said that if cholesterol is too low, then we cannot have proper excretion of hormones and our normal hormone levels will be low. Is there truth to this? If not, what are the studies that dispel this idea.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/gio/ Gio

    This shows that women are better off with high cholesterol:

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01767.x/pdf

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Hello Gio,

      Interesting article, nonetheless, if your suggesting meat is a health food you are mistaken. An analysis of the micro nutrient load shows a rather poor nutrient profile. To focus on one aspect of meat that may be beneficial is not a sensible approach, as one must look at the big picture. Do the pros outweigh the cons? The answer is a resounding no.
      http://nutritionfacts.org/?s=meat
      http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/mitochondrial-theory-of-aging/

    • DrMike

      Yeah, and in that study anyone with a total cholesterol below 200 was considered “low”, and that made up less than @20% of the test subjects.  That “200″ or anything close to it still WAY too high, and is not a good current standard for cholesterol, as people with 175 total drop dead from lard clogged arteries all the time.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/jdevries/ jdevries

    Help! My doctor is so concerned about my low cholesterol levels (24 LDL, 32 HDL, 89 Total), that he wants me to get a liver biopsy because he’s certain something is wrong. I’ve been vegan about 3 years, and a year ago LDL was around 50. I think the drop from 50 to 24 is what he’s concerned about. I know about 9 months ago I started restricting my calories to around 1500 to lose weight, and I’m pretty sure I let my protein intake drop to about 30-40g/day, which is too low (should be 80g; I’m 6’5″, 200 lbs). Can too low of protein intake lead to very low LDL numbers? Should my doctor take a chill pill? Thanks!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      1500 per day?! Arent you hungry a lot? Most whole foods plant based advocates allow all the food you want as long as it fits under the criteria of low fat whole foods plant based. Our calorie needs satisfy our protein needs so if your going hungry, then your depriving yourself needlessly.

      Perhaps you can show your doctor this study?
      http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/18/11/2805.full
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19887582
      Also, if you eat whole foods plant based, our white cell count in the blood is lower when we are not sick. This is a sign of health but the doctors misinterpret this as cancer because, well, they probably haven’t seen any truly “healthy” person.

      • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/jdevries/ jdevries

        Was I hungry? Yes, but I was also tired of lugging around an extra 50+ pounds (I weighed 260 last January)! I also didn’t count fruits and veggies against the 1500 calories, i.e. I would eat as much of those as I wanted, without counting their calories.

        I guess my real question was whether a too-restrictive protein intake can lead to lowered cholesterol numbers (by which I really mean if I get my protein intake back up to what it’s supposed to be will the cholesterol numbers come back up a bit?).

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/drdons/ DrDons

    Hi Jdevries, Lower cholesterol levels in your blood is a marker for good health unless associated with starvation. Your liver produces cholesterol naturally to meet your bodies needs. A small number of folks have livers that make alot of cholesterol. Beyond your livers production of cholesterol the amount is raised by how much cholesterol you eat(only in animal products) and how much saturated fat you eat(it is converted to cholesterol and is found in animal and plant products). Just a note to say there is alot of saturated fat in the tropical oils. Your cholesterol is also reduced by the amount of fiber you consume(helps pull bile and cholesterol out of your body). The amount of protein in your diet is not a factor in what your cholesterol numbers are unless your protein intake is associated with the above factors. So I wouldn’t try to get your cholesterol numbers up. I would be happy that they are low. You raise the issue of protein requirements. Our body needs 9 essential amino acids(the building blocks of protein). If you are consuming adequate calories you will get enough essential amino acids to meet your requirements. Clinical studies at this time point to consumption of animal protein to adversely effect our kidney function and decrease calcium content in our bones. Animal and epidemiological studies support animal protein as an initiator and promoter of the growth of certain cancer cells. So the consumption of plant based protein seems to be the best recommendation at this point. I would encourage you to read the two articles on protein by Dr. John McDougall. The articles are in his December 2003 and April 2007 newsletters which you can read free on his website. They provide the best concise summary of this complex issue that I have seen.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      DrDons, I am trying to find a scientific paper stating we do not need dietary cholesterol and that our liver produces all that we need. My uncle seems to think that we need dietary cholesterol for hormone production. Can you clear this up for me and provide me with any scientific literature if you can?

      • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

        You can check out the official Institute of Medicine monograph: “Given the capability of all tissues to synthesize sufficient cholesterol for their metabolic and structural needs, there is no evidence for a biological requirement for dietary cholesterol.”

        • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

          Thanks Dr. Greger. This is exactly what I was looking for.

  • kmcf

    To resurrect this, what do you think of the newer release from the American College of Cardiology?   http://www.cardiosource.org/News-Media/Media-Center/News-Releases/2012/03/LDL_Cancer.aspx

  • N_

    I’ve heard many people say that the body creates less cholesterol when intake is high, so the cholesterol level will balance out.

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