For people with very bad heart problems, having lower 'bad' cholesterol at the start of treatment might actually lead to a higher chance of dying over 20 years, especially if they're younger than 70 or taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.

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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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A longitudinal 20 years of follow up showed a decrease in the survival of heart failure patients who maintained low LDL cholesterol levels

Cohort Study

Human

2018 May 1

The study looked at heart failure patients and found that those with lower bad cholesterol levels had a higher chance of dying, especially if they were younger or taking statin drugs, which matches the claim exactly.

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

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According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

A longitudinal 20 years of follow up showed a decrease in the survival of heart failure patients who maintained low LDL cholesterol levels

Score: 31

DOI: 10.1093/qjmed/hcy043

Similar Assertions

This claim says that when people with very serious heart problems have higher 'bad' cholesterol levels at the start of treatment, they might actually live longer than those with lower levels.

31

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89%

For heart failure patients younger than 70, having lower 'bad' cholesterol might actually be linked to a higher chance of dying.

31

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87%

About half of the people who have serious heart problems also have low 'bad' cholesterol levels.

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34

74%

People with heart disease who take statin drugs and get their bad cholesterol down to a lower range (70-100) are less likely to have serious heart problems than those with slightly higher cholesterol (100-130).

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72%

For heart disease patients on statin drugs, having very low cholesterol levels doesn't seem to make a big difference in heart problems compared to having slightly higher levels, according to a large study.

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72%