Role in disease Cholesterolemia and mortality for men and women 60 years With the increased use of medication to suppress cholesterol, some have expressed concern that lowering cholesterol levels excessively will itself cause disease. Specific disease entities Demographic studies suggest that cholesterol levels form a U-shape curve when plotted against mortality; this suggests that low cholesterol is associated with increased mortality, mainly due to depression, cancer, hemorrhagic stroke, aortic dissection and respiratory diseases. It is possible that whatever causes the low cholesterol level also causes mortality, and that the low cholesterol is simply a marker of poor health. Links with depression have been supported by studies. In contrast, no evidence was found for a link with hemorrhagic stroke (although higher cholesterol levels conferred a relative protection), and neither did statin drugs worsen the risk. The Heart Protection Study found no increase in either respiratory disease or neuropsychiatric illness in a large trial population taking a statin drug. Elderly In the elderly, low cholesterol may confer a health risk that may not be offset by the beneficial effects of cholesterol lowering. Similarly, for elderly patients admitted to hospital, low cholesterol may predict short-term mortality. The prevalence of<unk>  in the elderly ranges between 2% to 36%, depending on specific cutoff levels and age range investigated. Alerting physicians to<unk>  may benefit some of their patients who take cholesterol-lowering drugs and decrease the rate of their emergency room visits. Critical illness In the setting of critical illness, low cholesterol levels are predictive of clinical deterioration, and are correlated with altered cytokine levels.
Hypocholesterolemia
Hyperlipidemia
Dysglycemia
Hypertriglyceridemia
Dyslipidemia
Glycemia
Hyperuricemia
Hypolipoproteinemia