What can happen when your cholesterol number goes too low?

The deadly cholesterol myth they keep pushing down your throat

How many times has your doctor given you the “cholesterol talk?”

You know, where numbers get tossed around, and yours is always “too high.”

But I bet he never gave you a talk about the risk of having cholesterol that’s too low.

It looks like somewhere along the way doctors mixed up cholesterol numbers with their golf scores.

Because where cholesterol is concerned, the lower under “par” you go, the more risky things get.

It was a big study funded by a big drug company to try and “save” a dangerous med.

And because of it, your doctor is likely going to lower the cholesterol bar once again. This time telling you that a low — really low number — will “IMPROVE” your health.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Merck called its trial IMPROVE-IT, and that was exactly what it was hoping to do–improve the soiled reputation of a dangerous cholesterol drug called Vytorin.

Vytorin hit the market over 10 years ago and is a combo of Zetia (another risky Merck drug) and a statin.

Now on its own, Zetia comes with a super-long list of side effects. Things like depression, aggressive behavior, memory problems, and damage to your liver.

Add to that all the risks of a statin (like diabetes) and you’ve got the “wonder” pill called Vytorin. In this trial, people were given either Vytorin or a statin drug, like Lipitor.

When the IMPROVE-IT trial finally concluded, Merck wasted no time in announcing its “miraculous” results.

Cholesterol numbers were low. Actually they were lower than low, with the average Vytorin patient sinking down to the 50s.

Even the study leader, Duke Cardiologist Dr. Robert Califf, was worried. He said that “many people were nervous about going this low and imagined a lot of possible toxicities.”

But all is now good in Merck land, because the trial has been called a success!

But what Merck didn’t announce was the fact that over 40 percent of the people participating in the trial stopped taking the drug they were given — either the statin alone or the Vytorin — long before it concluded.

Hmmm, it makes you wonder why so many would quit. Were those terribly low cholesterol numbers making them all sick?

Considering what researchers have been saying about what can happen when your numbers dip so low, that could well be the case.

Back in 1999, researcher Dr. David Tirschwell told a shocked group at the American Heart Association that those with cholesterol numbers under 180 were at double the risk of having a stroke than those who were in the 230 range.

And that wasn’t a brand new finding, either.

Over 30 years ago research out of Japan came to just about the same conclusion.

And so did other researchers who did a long-term study on middle-aged men in Hawaii.

In fact, it appears that all sorts of diseases and conditions are linked to bargain-basement cholesterol numbers. Things like depression, suicide, heart attacks, strokes and Parkinson’s disease.

That’s probably because of the many ways cholesterol helps you to stay healthy. It’s a powerful antioxidant, is needed to help your body make vitamin D and is also required for hormone production.

Now, at one time not very long ago, a “healthy” cholesterol number was said to be 130 (still too low in my opinion), but it’s been creeping down and down as the years go by.

And the statin sales go up.

After all, they want us all to think popping all those cholesterol-lowering drugs are good for us, right?

But here’s what I think is most telling in this whole thing. And it comes from what a heart doctor wrote in a professional publication about the drugs used in the IMPROVE-IT study.

Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley said: “I can nearly guarantee you that instead of a one in 50 chance that this compound will help you, there is a nearly 100% chance that the Mediterranean diet and a 30-minute walk daily will drop your death rate by 50%. Plus, it will help your osteoporosis risk, lower your blood pressure, and decrease your risk of developing diabetes.”

And I can guarantee you that trading in a normal cholesterol number for a double-digit one will not do anything to IMPROVE your health.

Sources:
“Study finds alternative to anti-cholesterol drug” Gina Kolata, November 17, 2014 The New York Times, nytimes.com