People with the lowest cholesterol levels have the highest rate of death from coronary heart disease

This study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine 1997 May 15;126(10):753-60

 

Study title and authors:

Clarifying the direct relation between total cholesterol levels and death from coronary heart disease in older persons.

Corti MC, Guralnik JM, Salive ME, Harris T, Ferrucci L, Glynn RJ, Havlik RJ.

National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9205, USA.

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9148647

This study investigated the association of cholesterol levels and the risk of death from heart disease. The study included 4,066 men and women who were followed for five years.

The study found:
(a) Those with the lowest cholesterol levels (less than 4.15 mmol/L [160 mg/dL]) had the highest rate of death from coronary heart disease.
(b) Those with the highest cholesterol levels (more than 6.20 mmol/L [240 mg/dL]) had the lowest rate of death from coronary heart disease.