Can My Cholesterol Be Too Low?

Dr. Roger Blumenthal answers the question: 'Can My Cholesterol Be Too Low?'

By
Roger Blumenthal, M.D., Director, The Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease; The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
May 2, 2008, 2:27 PM ET
1 min read

— -- Question: Can My Cholesterol Be Too Low?

Answer: For a healthy individual, a low cholesterol level is a very good sign, and indicates that that person is very unlikely to develop hardening of the arteries at an early age.

Sometimes a low cholesterol level can be indicative of other medical problems, such as an infection, a type of cancer, some sort of rheumatologic disorder.

But generally, if a person is otherwise healthy, we'd much rather have a lower total cholesterol, less than 170 or less than 150, because that's a very good prognostic sign that that person is less likely to develop hardening in the arteries in the future.

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