By Carolyn Berghuis, M.S., N.D.

Low cholesterol, especially in older individuals correlates with an increased risk of death.  People suffering from diseases like AIDS, chronic fatigue, and cancer often have very low cholesterol readings.  It is now indisputable that for those people approaching 75 years or older, low cholesterol can be a very, very bad finding.   Yet, many health care professionals still continue to lower their patients cholesterol with drugs.

Cholesterol is essential for life.  From cholesterol your body makes your stress and sex hormones.  Not enough cholesterol equates to not enough raw material to create the needed hormones.  Then what do you suppose happens when your body can't make the stress hormones it needs or the sex hormones it needs?   Hormone deficiency often results.  Symptoms might include hot flashes (women), lack of stress handling capabilities, low libido, fatige, muscle weakness, lack of zest for life, or a low functioning immune system - just to mention a few.  Further, you can't have healthy bones with out cholesterol transformed to vitamin D in your skin by the sun. 

Cholesterol Drugs Actually Lower CoQ10 Production; an Essential Nutrient for the Heart

  Statin drugs, have become more potent and are being prescribed in higher doses to increasing numbers of people--even those with "normal" cholesterol levels. What is often overlooked by physicians is that patients taking statins become depleted in Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, soreness and heart failure.