Can having too little bad cholesterol be dangerous?
Can LDL cholesterol be too low? Possible risks of extremely low levels
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Doctors can now lower bad cholesterol (LDL) to very low levels with medicine. This review asks if that’s safe. It looks at how the body handles cholesterol and finds that even when LDL is very low, the body still makes what it needs for important jobs.
Surprising Findings
The body maintains hormone and bile production even at LDL-C levels as low as 14 mg/dL.
Common belief holds that cholesterol is essential for hormone synthesis, so extremely low levels were thought to impair these functions. This review shows the body compensates effectively.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t panic if your LDL cholesterol drops very low on medication—your body likely still has what it needs.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Doctors can now lower bad cholesterol (LDL) to very low levels with medicine. This review asks if that’s safe. It looks at how the body handles cholesterol and finds that even when LDL is very low, the body still makes what it needs for important jobs.
Surprising Findings
The body maintains hormone and bile production even at LDL-C levels as low as 14 mg/dL.
Common belief holds that cholesterol is essential for hormone synthesis, so extremely low levels were thought to impair these functions. This review shows the body compensates effectively.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t panic if your LDL cholesterol drops very low on medication—your body likely still has what it needs.
Publication
Journal
Journal of Internal Medicine
Year
2017
Authors
Anders G. Olsson, Bo Angelin, Gerd Assmann, Christoph J. Binder, Ingemar Björkhem, Angel Cedazo-Minguez, Jonathan C. Cohen, A. Eckardstein, Eduardo Farinaro, Dirk Müller-Wieland, K. Parhofer, P. Parini, Robert S. Rosenson, J. Starup-Linde, M. J. Tikkanen, Laurent Yvan-Charvet
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Claims (5)
Even if medicine lowers your 'bad' cholesterol to super low levels—like what you see in babies or animals—your body can still make the hormones and digestive juices it needs.
Low LDL cholesterol probably isn't causing illnesses like cancer or depression — it's more likely that these diseases are lowering cholesterol as a side effect.
Taking statins might raise your chances of getting type 2 diabetes, and it's the medicine itself — not lower cholesterol — that's likely to blame.
We can now lower bad cholesterol to super low levels with treatment — even lower than what babies or some animals have — but we're not sure if that's totally safe over the long term.
Can someone be perfectly healthy even if their 'bad' cholesterol is super low—like 14 mg/dL?