Studies have found that people with low cholesterol have a greater likelihood of dying from such diseases as cancer and digestive disease. This is because antioxidants such as vitamin E and beta-carotene circulate in the bloodstream along with cholesterol in lipoproteins. Low serum cholesterol results in reduced serum antioxidant capacity and less protection against free-radicals that are the nasties responsible for degenerative disease. As males have high levels of oxidative stress due to high metabolic rates and physical activity levels, the consequences of reduced antioxidants are more dramatic. Reduction in cholesterol levels has also been associated with an increase in depression and violent death.
Cholesterol is the building block for sex steroid hormones.
Reducing cholesterol could result in diminished libido and declining fertility. Cholesterol is synthesised in your liver so that when you consume lots of cholesterol rich foods, which are found in animal fats, your liver compensates by producing less cholesterol. It is only when your body is over-saturated with cholesterol that this regulatory mechanism breaks down. There are other important factors only recently discovered which also account for the development of atherosclerosis.