Low cholesterol increases cancer risk

Part 3: Other cancers, and What is a dangerously low cholesterol level?

Other cancers linked to low cholesterol levels include squamous cell and small cell lung cancers,[1] liver cancer,[2] multiple myeloma,[3] adrenal cancer,[4] blood cancers including lymphoma, acute leukaemia, chronic myeloid leukaemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia, policytemia vera, myeloma, chronic lymphoid leukaemia,[5] hairy cell leukemia,[6] brain cancers,[7] and gastrointestinal cancers.[8]

So what is a dangerously low cholesterol level? Well, it's almost certainly higher than you think.

Scientists at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Padua, Italy, analysed cancer deaths in 3282 elderly men and women aged 65 years or over taking part in the 12-year CASTEL (CArdiovascular STudy in the ELderly).[9] The study's analysis showed clearly an increase in cancers in people 'with very low cholesterol'.

'Very low' was defined as a level below 4.63 mmol/L (178 mg/dL). This level is similar to that found in a study of middle-aged men published four years earlier in which 'Serum cholesterol concentrations below 4.8 mmol/l [185mg/dL] were associated with the highest all cause mortality. . .'[10]

Incidentally, CASTEL showed that men whose Body Mass Index was 22.7 or lower - 22.7 is right in the middle of the 'healthy' weight range - also had an increased cancer risk.

References