"In a study from the USA published in 1990, changes in blood cholesterol over time were studied in patients with colon cancer. The doctors found that there had been an average thirteen percent decline in blood cholesterol levels in the ten years prior to diagnosis of the cancer compared with an average increase of two percent in the control group. Both those with the cancer and those free from it had similar blood cholesterol levels initially. It is possible that the decline in blood cholesterol levels was a result of the cancer, not the cause of it, but this is ruled out by the investigators. They compare cholesterol studies with apparently contrary findings and show that in reality they are consistent. Comparing those that reported normal or high cholesterol readings several years prior to diagnosis with others where, at the time of diagnosis, levels were low, they conclude that it was a long term lowering of blood cholesterol levels that gave rise to the cancers. Interestingly, the average blood cholesterol level of those who developed the cancers declined to an average 5.56 mmol/l and yet the British government's Health of the Nation strategy still aims to reduce everyone's levels to below 5.2 mmol/l.
Low cholesterol means more strokes
Published at about the same time was a very large study in Japan, covering two decades, which concluded that low levels of blood cholesterol also increase the incidence of stroke.
Over the past few decades, Japan has experienced a rapid change in its living and eating patterns. The Japanese are eating more total fat, saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, animal fats and protein, and less rice and vegetables. This has provided a unique opportunity for a large-scale, natural experiment into the effects of those changes.
Investigators have shown that this change to Western and urban eating patterns, departing as it does from centuries old traditions, has been accompanied by a general lowering of blood pressure and a large decline in the incidence of stroke deaths and cerebral haemorrhage between the 1960s and the 1980s. They attribute this decline to an increase in blood cholesterol levels over the period. Supporting their findings were the results of a follow-up of 350,000 men screened for the MRFIT in the United States that showed that the risk of death from cerebral haemorrhage in middle-aged men was six times greater if they had low blood cholesterol levels.
On Christmas Eve, 1997, yet one more study's results were headlined in the press. The Framingham researchers said that "Serum cholesterol level is not related to incidence of stroke . . ." and showed that for every three percent more energy from fat eaten, strokes would be cut by fifteen percent. They conclude:"
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/cholesterol_myth_4.html
The cholesterol number you actually need to worry about is your VLDL which is very-low-density lipoprotein. Unless your cholesterol test MEASURE PARTICLE SIZE, you really don't know what that number means.
You can have a low overall cholesterol and have a high VLDL which means you are at risk for heart attack.
You can can a high overall cholesterol number and have a high HDL, a low LDL and a very low VLDL and NOT be at risk.
Arbitrarily trying to reach a set cholesterol number can put you at risk for stroke or cancer.
Remember, cholesterol is what your body uses to repair arterial walls. (Your brain is also made up of cholesterol.) Cholesterol is only a problem when you have excess inflammation and damage which causes cholesterol build up. That damage and build up is fueled by GLUCOSE. Sugars and other carbohydrates act like sandpaper inside your arteries.