The benefits of high cholesterol

We have all heard the claims that a high blood cholesterol level is harmful. We hear and see this message in news bulletins, magazine articles, advertisements for cholesterol-lowering foods, even breakfast cereals, and drugs several times every day. But the evidence refutes these claims.

• High cholesterol protects against all the conditions caused by low cholesterol
• High cholesterol means greater life expectancy - The oldest people in care homes are the ones with high cholesterol.
• High cholesterol even protects against heart disease risk
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There is a growing amount of evidence for a hypothesis that the first step in the formation of atherosclerosis is an inflammatory response to some injury of the arterial wall caused by damage to that wall, perhaps by an infectious bacterium or virus.

Low levels of cholesterol harm the body's immune system.

Putting these two factors together shows how a high cholesterol level could actually protect against atherosclerosis.

This would also explain why, although most cardiovascular diseases are seen after the age of 60, studies of the elderly find that those with high cholesterol have fewer heart attacks than those with low cholesterol.