Can cholesterol go too low? Study sees cancer link

By Maggie Fox and Ben Hirschler
Tue Jul 24, 11:54 AM ET



Lowering cholesterol as much as possible may reduce the risk of heart disease, but with a price: taking it too low could raise the risk of cancer, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Patients who took statin drugs to lower their cholesterol had a slightly higher risk of cancer, although the study did not show that the statin drugs themselves caused the cancer.

The researchers found one extra case of cancer per 1,000 patients with the lowest levels of LDL -- low density lipoprotein or so-called bad cholesterol -- when compared to patients with higher LDL levels.

Dr. Richard Karas of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and colleagues did not look directly at patients for their study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

They did what is known as a meta-analysis, looking at the records of 41,173 patients in 23 different trials of statins.

"The demonstrated benefits of statins in lowering the risk of heart disease remain clear; however, certain aspects of lowering LDL with statins remain controversial and merit further research," Karas said in a statement.

Some experts cautioned that the general public could misunderstand the meaning of the study.

"You have to be careful about these things, because people stop taking their statins because they are afraid of cancer and then they die of heart attacks," said statin expert Dr. John LaRosa of the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, who wrote a commentary in the journal.

Statins are the world's top-selling drugs, pulling in billions of dollars for their makers. They lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, and evidence also suggests unexpected benefits, such as a lowered risk of death from influenza, pneumonia and the effects of smoking.

Experts believe some of the beneficial effects may come from the drugs' effects on inflammation in the body.

EXTRA-LOW CHOLESTEROL RISKS

But people with extra-low cholesterol may have a higher risk of Parkinson's disease. Statin drugs can also damage the liver and muscles.

The Karas study renews concerns about cancer, as well.

Karas and colleagues examined the records of patients treated with popular statins, including Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor and Merck & Co. Inc.'s Zocor, now off patent.

They did not include data from recently launched statins such as AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor and Merck/Schering-Plough Corp.'s Vytorin.

LaRosa said even if the statins did raise the risk of cancer, the overall risk was low and the risks of heart disease are far more immediate. "The truth of the matter is that we cannot live forever," he said in a telephone interview.

"Something is going to get us. If we don't die of heart disease, then we die of cancer or Alzheimer's. We don't want people to stop something that we know has benefits."

Andrew Baum, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in London, said concerns over statin safety had waxed and waned over the past 10 years, and few physicians were likely to change prescribing practice following the news.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070724...xPa.hvybbHVJRIF

Besides the cancer risk, cholesterol is the raw material for building hormones..so if your cholesterol is too low, then your output of hormone is going to be low.

Of course then a regular doctor will put you on HRT to remedy that..

sheesh

Current medical "wisdom" thinks that we get cancer of the sexual organs because we have hormones! They try to eliminate hormones!

So cancer causes low cholesterol... interesting.

No, other way around

low cholesterol can raise the risk of cancer

IMHO - having abnormally low cholesterol (as low as statin manufacturers want everyone's cholesterol to be) is not healthy

Considering that we make Vitamin D from cholesterol and low vitamin D levels has been linked to cancer, it makes sense that low cholesterol could lead to cancer.

I was thinking that cancer of an organ related to cholesterol might skew things - the liver or perhaps the colon. I have seen no research showing cause in either direction. But really I was >1/2 joking. I don't really trust the use of correlations to prove cause and effect.

Not, cancer will cause CHo to drop as well as cause weight loss. rapidly growing malignant cells need large amount of glucose, so they eat through muscles and fat since they can only make glucose in anaerobic state and via gluconeogenesis; and I believe they use cholesterol as building material. This is how cancer lowers cholesterol, but it can be observed at a later stages of cancer, when it is metastasized.


this is just a hypothesis, some may have low CHO and no cancer, while the opposite is also true.
If cancer is linked to sex hormones (prostate, breast, ovarian, etc. ) lower CHO would be better to lower cancer fueling hormones.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/c...tate_Cancer.asp
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050...m0805-812b.html

Low CHO can cause depression, infertility and low libido , but only if one follows very low fat/low cholesterol diet, which also lacks animal protein. Not when one has naturally low cholesterol (by blood test).
Having just naturally low cholesterol is not abnormal. It depends on many factors: family history, exercise, lifestyle habits, gender, age, alcohol consumption, etc. Using statin drugs causes similar effect.
I don't believe that healthy lean folks should have high CHO just to avoid cancer.
JMHO

Low LDL cholesterol associated with increased cancer risk

The finding of a review reported in July 31, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology questions the wisdom of widespread aggressive reduction of cholesterol to very low levels by the use of statin drugs as recommended by recent national guidelines. Although significant reduction of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol may help prevent heart disease, researchers at Tufts University have discovered an association between decreased LDL and a greater risk of cancer.

In an effort to determine the mechanism of statin drugs’ damaging side effects, Tufts University School of Medicine professor of medicine Richard H. Karas, MD and colleagues examined data from the treatment arms of 23 randomized controlled statin drug trials that included 75,317 participants, and found that liver toxicity rose with increased dosage, leading the team to conclude that moderate dose therapy with several medications may be preferable to high dose therapy with a statin drug alone.

To examine the drugs’ effect on cancer, 13 treatment arms including 41,173 participants were evaluated. When the researchers analyzed the effect of LDL reduction on the rates of newly diagnosed cancer, they found that for every 1,000 patients with low LDL levels there was an additional incidence of cancer compared to the same amount of subjects with higher LDL. This relationship was not dependent upon the percentage of change in LDL levels, nor was the cancer limited to a specific type or location.

The authors conclude that “the cardiovascular benefits of low achieved levels of LDL cholesterol may in part be offset by an increased risk of cancer.” It is not known whether the increased risk of cancer is attributable to statin drugs or having low LDL. “This analysis doesn’t implicate the statin in increasing the risk of cancer,” Dr Karas stated. “The demonstrated benefits of statins in lowering the risk of heart disease remain clear, however, certain aspects of lowering LDL with statins remain controversial and merit further research.”

Health Concern: Cholesterol reduction

The following nutritional supplements offer synergistic benefits to assist dietary modification to reduce total serum cholesterol and elevate HDL cholesterol:

Policosanol, take one tablet twice per day with meals: one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Or Sytrinol, one capsule twice daily.
Fiber, 4 to 6 grams before any high-fat meal.
Chitosan, three to six 500-mg chitosan capsules and one 1000 mg ascorbic acid capsule right before a high-fat meal.
Niacin, 1500 to 3000 mg a day (if tolerable).
Artichoke Extract, 300 mg, 3 times a day.
Garlic, 600 to 4800 mg a day.
Curcumin, 900 to 1800 mg a day.
Gugulipid, 140 mg 1 to 2 times a day.
Green tea, 750 mg a day of green tea, 93% polyphenol extract.
Perilla oil, 6000 mg a day. We suggest taking six 1000-mg gel caps daily. If triglycerides are high, consider taking 4-8 softgels of fish oil (EPA/DHA).
Vitamin E, 400 to 800 IU daily
Soy protein extract, 2 heaping teaspoons (5 to 6 grams) of soy powder daily. For those who want to avoid powders, consider taking one-five capsules of Ultra Soy Extract (40% isoflavones) daily.
Selenium, 200 to 600 mcg daily.
Herbal Cardiovascular Formula, two-six capsules daily with food in divided doses.
http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-032.shtml

http://www.lef.org/newsletter/2007/2007_08_03.htm