Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Misinformation about the relationship between death, heart disease, and cholesterol continues to be widely shared on social media. This post breaks down one major recent myth.
There has been a longstanding inverse association between cholesterol and risk of death, as seen in the epidemiological literature. Since at least the 1970s, there have been perhaps hundreds of papers showing such an inverse association. A recent paper published in Scientific Reports made the same observation (PMID 34764414).
Like clockwork, those who advocate a diet composed predominantly of meat—which raises blood cholesterol—jumped on the opportunity to point out that this observation had been made, yet again.
This is despite the fact that reducing cholesterol—LDL cholesterol in particular—by using cholesterol-lowering medications, reduces both heart disease and deaths in randomized controlled trials (PMID 32052833).
What they do not talk about is that another paper was published around the same time that suggested an explanation (PMID 33874960). This paper showed that adjusting for malnutrition fully explained the finding—and that, after correction, higher cholesterol was associated with higher risk of death.
Such findings are supported by a number of other, older papers (e.g., PMID 30775589 and 31159248).
In the end, randomized controlled trials trump observational studies. It has clearly been shown by human studies giving people cholesterol lowering medicines that reducing cholesterol reduces heart attacks and deaths. And there are clear explanations for why the observational studies give the outcomes that they do. But you won’t often hear that from online diet charlatans who are more interested in selling diets than in promoting an evidence-based approach to health.
Please share this post!
And please donate here: thedietwars.com/support-me
Misinformation about the relationship between death, heart disease, and cholesterol continues to be widely shared on social media. This post breaks down one major recent myth.
There has been a longstanding inverse association between cholesterol and risk of death, as seen in the epidemiological literature. Since at least the 1970s, there have been perhaps hundreds of papers showing such an inverse association. A recent paper published in Scientific Reports made the same observation (PMID 34764414).
Like clockwork, those who advocate a diet composed predominantly of meat—which raises blood cholesterol—jumped on the opportunity to point out that this observation had been made, yet again.
This is despite the fact that reducing cholesterol—LDL cholesterol in particular—by using cholesterol-lowering medications, reduces both heart disease and deaths in randomized controlled trials (PMID 32052833).
What they do not talk about is that another paper was published around the same time that suggested an explanation (PMID 33874960). This paper showed that adjusting for malnutrition fully explained the finding—and that, after correction, higher cholesterol was associated with higher risk of death.
Such findings are supported by a number of other, older papers (e.g., PMID 30775589 and 31159248).
In the end, randomized controlled trials trump observational studies. It has clearly been shown by human studies giving people cholesterol lowering medicines that reducing cholesterol reduces heart attacks and deaths. And there are clear explanations for why the observational studies give the outcomes that they do. But you won’t often hear that from online diet charlatans who are more interested in selling diets than in promoting an evidence-based approach to health.
Please share this post!
And please donate here: thedietwars.com/support-me
