Is it possible for cholesterol to be too low?

I am weird. I have VERY LOW CHOLESTEROL. My total cholesterol, as well as my LDL are too low to be measured. My HDL is admittedly too low at 34, but well, since all else is so low, no one is too concerned, and they say there isn't much to be done about it anyways..., my triglycerides are 45. I am 30 yrs old (will be 31 Sunday). I learned this about my cholesterol (it was low at my last physical, but still measurable, total at 100, LDL and HDL in the forties, and triglycerides at 75) when I went to get possibly diagnosed with diabetes. I have since become an official diabetic, but we are still trying to figure out if I'm T1 or T2. (weirdness going on there too--nothing makes sense.) Also, in the process of all of this, it was discovered that my WBC was 37,800 one day!! My PCP was sure this was a machine error, ran it again, still very high. She sent me to the hospital lab for a redraw and test on THEIR machines, still in the 30,000 range. So, I am being followed by a hematologist for this. Smear looked good--nothing out of the ordinary, no high concentration of one type of WBC, no abnormal looking cells etc. Of course, that day my WBC was down to 12,000--much better but not normal. I've had several CBC's since, and they have been 16,000 (with slightly low platelets), 22,000 (all else normal I think)--after an allergic reaction to glyburide, and 18,000 all else normal. I have one last chance to "pass" my CBC tomorrow, and then if my WBC is still high, I get a bone marrow biopsy on Thursday to rule out anything nefarious.

Well, I was of course concerned about the high BG readings, and the High WBC readings, and all the docs said my cholesterol was GREAT, and such. Well, I did some research into low cholesterol, and found that it may not be so good to be TOO low. I asked my endo about it, and she said she'd never heard anything like that, but she'd also NEVER seen any one with a total cholesterol under a hundred before, even on statins etc. So, I'm definitely an anomaly. I also found that low cholesterol can be linked with some cancers. I did have a totally normal abdominal cat scan (thanks to the high white cells, and some of the VERY weird ways my glyburide reaction manifested itself. Sever abdominal pain seemed to be a far worse symptom for me than the facial swelling that eventually closed one of my eyes. At least they gave me both benadryl and phenergan for the stomach pain, and I stopped taking the glyburide as I wasn't eating and everything got better. That's when I made the connection. Plus, once the tummy settled, the residual face swelling made several people comment that it looked like I was reacting to something. I then realized, of course, the Glyburide. We won't be doing that med again. No problems of that sort since stopping it.

So, does anyone know if it is indeed possible for cholesterol to be too low? I did find a few studies that showed septic people who got VERY low cholesterol were more likely to die. (the sepsis somehow triggered the low cholesterol?) I have survived septic shock twice in my life now. The first time, the surgery done to release the infection didn't find anything to drain--just a huge mass of cellulitis--and I was basically carted back to the ICU to wait until I died. (I was four, this was secondary to the chicken pox). I didn't die, amazingly. The second time, I turned septic on the 14th day of a two week I.V. antibiotic regimen for an infected hand. I had a resistant bacteria. My hand surgeon had NEVER had a patient in the ICU before--he said hand infections just don't usually get that bad. The ID though maybe I had necrotizing fasciitis. However, the surgery was minimal--just a tiny pocket of pus to drain, but I did nearly die that day (WBC up at 40,000, blood not clotting etc. BP only up to 70/30 despite many liters of saline, I was being forced to retain, and BP raising meds etc.). Surgeon can't believe that the small amount of *** drained really helped much, but I did get almost instantly better after surgery. And, resistance studies of the bacteria in my blood (which did eventually grow out of my hand, and never out of my PICC line), didn't come back until AFTER Surgery, so I wasn't started on Bactrim until after that--the only antibiotic that would kill the resistant bug! So, I don't know if both my sepsis incidents permanently lowered my cholesterol (I doubt it), or if I was lucky to survive, and possibly had low cholesterol then (I know I was lucky to survive both times. Actually, there is a debate amongst doctors whether I have a good or bad immune system. See, someone with a good immune system doesn't generally turn septic at the drop of a hat. However, someone with a bad immune system doesn't generally survive sepsis. Most people with good immune systems dont'...).

Um yeah, so, should I worry about too low cholesterol, or just worry about all the other weirdness going on right now? Could it at all be related?

Emily
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