Women’s Cholesterol Carries a Warning

It’s well known that raised blood cholesterol (total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) carries an increased risk of heart attack, and that treatment with statins reduces the risk of stroke in patients with a history of stroke. But is there a link between raised cholesterol and stroke? Apparently, there is. A new report from the Women’s Health Study, published in the journal Neurology, finds that apparently healthy women with high cholesterol levels have an increased risk for ischemic (thrombotic) stroke.

Over 25,000 women aged 45 or older provided baseline blood samples. In the next 11 years, 282 of them had strokes. It was found that those with the highest total cholesterol levels (i.e. in the top 20% of the collective) had a 2.3-times increased risk of having a stroke; and with a high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 1.74 times the risk.

All this suggests that women over 45 (and maybe younger) should have regular blood tests to see if they have raised cholesterol levels, and, if they have, do something about it – see their doctor, change their diet, exercise, take medications, and so on. The end-results of a stroke are devastating, and should be warning enough. (This study was done in women. The results very probably apply to men as well, who shouldn’t be smug about the findings.)