I know little about cholesterol, except for the fact that I used to have too high level of this ingredient in my blood. My previous medical doctor used to say to me not to take any drug, because it has negative side-effects. My present doctor gave me a small dose of drug (1/4 of the large dose), and this has had excellent effect: my cholesterol is very good now. But what about negative side-effects? Are there any, and which ones?

Short answer to your question is yes.

[Very young children often have very low plasma lipid levels.]

Ranges of various values that considered normal at our facility:

LDL cholesterol (estimated value): 0-129mg/dl.

Total Cholesterol: 2-199 mg/dl

HDL Cholesterol: 40-125mg/dl

Cholesterol, Non-HDL: 1-159mg/dl

Triglycerides: 7-149 mg/dl

[If relatively low levels are a consequence of high doses of Atorvastatin, side-effects may be an issue that can be minimized by lowering Atorvastatin dose which may result in a small increase in lipid levels but given the current levels, it's likely to remain well within safe range.]

Dear,

Yes. Estimated level of LDL cholesterol is 0-129 mg/dl.

Best regards,

Kazemi

Of course it is possible to reach low levels of LDL-C under therapy. We seldom see patients under statins reaching 30 mg/dl (we are happy if we get them below 70) but if you look for publications describing the PCSK9 inhibitors you will find several cases where patients achieved values even lower than 30 mg/dl.

May I turn your attention to a publication of a former colleague concerning the usage of the Friedewald formula at low LDL concentrations:

Clin Chem Lab Med. 2001 May;39(5):426-31.

The Friedewald formula underestimates LDL cholesterol at low concentrations.

why is this patient on a statin? What were the cholesterol values prior to treatment? There are some genetic causes of low LDL-C but there would be no cause to treat those patients with a statin. I wonder if this patient needs such aggressive therapy and whether lowering the LDL-C to such an extent is worth the risk of side effects.

¡Hi  Yashad Dongol ¡:Two genetic profiles with low LDL Cholesterol are a-.Beta lipoproteinemia and  a Hypo -Beta lipoproteinemia. You can control your analytical quality with an electrophoretic run on agarose gel, showing a low LDL in lipoproteins at beta site. In neonates children ,in umbilical hemathological sample the first days  show such low levels of LDL Cholesterol  Statins may be considered a good treatment for high levels of LDL, but the patients must be followed with control of CCK and aldolases to prevent rhabdomyolisis and,  in the other side, with several biomarkers of  secondary diabetes. Do not use Friedewald formula because it underestimates LDL-Chol , as our friend Michael says..  

Certainly the answer is yes. Also I suggest that a direct estimation of LDL-Cholesterol be done in such cases instead of using Friedewald formula as this would lead to underestimation.

 I do not think lowering LDL-cholesterol would lead to any side effect.