Why People Over 60 Should NOT Lower Their LDL

Here’s a fact that you won’t hear on Big Pharma TV ads. The authors of an article published in the British Medical Journal stated:

“It is well known that total cholesterol becomes less of a risk factor or not at all for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality with increasing age.”

You read that right. Although high cholesterol levels are associated with shorter lifespans in young people, the opposite happens with men and women over 60.

The researchers in the study searched the published literature to find all of the studies that looked at the effect of high LDL cholesterol (that’s the supposed “bad one”) on the death rate of men and women over 60 years old. They found 19 studies that looked at a total of 68,094 people. What they found might shock you.

In 92% of the men and women, the lower their LDL cholesterol levels were, the more likely they were to die from any cause! That’s right. They are saying that if you’re over 60, it’s dangerous to do anything to lower your LDL cholesterol. I know that’s gotta sound shocking, but you can read the complete study for yourself at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4908872/.

The authors concluded that “High LDL cholesterol is inversely associated with mortality [meaning it lowers the death rate] in most people over 60 years. This finding is inconsistent with the cholesterol hypothesis, i.e., that cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol is inherently atherogenic [causes atherosclerosis].” They are basically stating that the cholesterol theory is wrong. But they don’t stop there.

They go on to say, “Since elderly people with high LDL cholesterol live as long or longer than those with low LDL cholesterol, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis. Moreover, our study provides the rationale for a re-evaluation of guidelines recommending pharmacological reduction [statin drugs, etc.] of LDL cholesterol in the elderly as a component of cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.”

These are astounding statements to make in a major medical journal. In plain language what they’re saying is that it’s not a good idea to lower the LDL cholesterol in people over the age of 60. Besides shortening their lives, the drugs that are used to lower LDL have already been shown to decrease cognitive function, cause diabetes, decrease muscle mass, damage livers and kidneys, cause heart failure, and increase the risk of cancer, cataracts, and neurodegenerative diseases. And here’s why this is so especially dangerous for the over-60 group.

It’s because many of these disorders and symptoms are so common in older people that doctors often don’t realize that the cholesterol-lowering drugs they are prescribing are causing these problems. If you’re over 60 and you develop any of these problems after starting a cholesterol-lowering drug, your doctor is likely to miss the connection and think that your problems are due to your age instead of the drug.

So, beware. As this comprehensive study shows, if you’re over 60, cholesterol-lowering drugs will not only not extend your life at all, but 92% of the time will only act to shorten it.

Yours for better health,

Frank Shallenberger, MD