Not only is cholesterol good for you, it is an essential nutrient for your existence and you could die without it.  This fact is demonstrated most clearly in the case of a genetic defect known as Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome.  Children born with this affliction are unable to synthesize cholesterol in their own bodies like the rest of us. Around 80% of the cholesterol found in the human body is made in this way.  Scandanavian scientist Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PHD  has this to say about the affliction from his paper,  The Benefits of High Cholesterol, “Children with the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome have very low cholesterol because the enzyme that is necessary for the last step in the body’s synthesis of cholesterol does not function properly. Most children with this syndrome are either stillborn or they die early because of serious malformations of the central nervous system. Those who survive are imbecile, they have extremely low cholesterol and suffer from frequent and severe infections. However, if their diet is supplemented with pure cholesterol or extra eggs, their cholesterol goes up and their bouts of infection become less serious and less frequent.” (Elias ER and others. Clinical effects of cholesterol supplementation in six patients with the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS). American Journal of Medical Genetics 68, 305–310, 1997).  Dr. Ravnskov has also written a book called The Cholesterol Myths, in which he exposes the fallacy that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart attacks.

Before continuing, there is a perfectly fair question posed by some readers that should be addressed here.  The question is “How do I know your pro-cholesterol  information is more valid than the other sources I am exposed to that you claim are little more than demonizing propaganda created by pharmaceutical companies for a profit motive?”  This is an excellent question and the simple fact is that you dont know.  It falls upon you the reader to closely examine the sources that are cited and the arguments presented to decide for yourself what is actually true.

Another of the benefits Dr. Ravskov cites in his paper, The Benefits of High Cholesterol, is enhanced immune function.  In it he states, “Many studies have found that low cholesterol is in certain respects worse than high cholesterol. For instance, in 19 large studies of more than 68,000 deaths, reviewed by Professor David R. Jacobs and his co-workers from the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, low cholesterol predicted an increased risk of dying from gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.^” (Jacobs D and others. Report of the conference on low blood cholesterol: Mortality associations. Circulation 86, 1046–1060, 1992.)  And he continues, “Most gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases have an infectious origin. Therefore, a relevant question is whether it is the infection that lowers cholesterol or the low cholesterol that predisposes to infection? To answer this question Professor Jacobs and his group, together with Dr. Carlos Iribarren, followed more than 100,000 healthy individuals in the San Francisco area for fifteen years. At the end of the study those who had low cholesterol at the start of the study had more often been admitted to the hospital because of an infectious disease. This finding cannot be explained away with the argument that the infection had caused cholesterol to go down, because how could low cholesterol, recorded when these people were without any evidence of infection, be caused by a disease they had not yet encountered? Isn´t it more likely that low cholesterol in some way made them more vulnerable to infection, or that high cholesterol protected those who did not become infected? Much evidence exists to support that interpretation.” (Iribarren C and others. Serum total cholesterol and risk of hospitalization, and death from respiratory disease. International Journal of Epidemiology 26, 1191–1202, 1997.  And, Iribarren C and others. Cohort study of serum total cholesterol and in-hospital incidence of infectious diseases. Epidemiology and Infection 121, 335–347, 1998.)