It's no secret that high cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease, but new research from Italy suggests that it may also be bad for the bones.
In a study of postmenopausal women, those with higher levels of the "bad" form of cholesterol were much more likely to show signs of bone thinning than women with normal cholesterol.
The findings do not prove that high cholesterol is to blame for bone thinning, but the results do provide a possible explanation for studies suggesting that cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins protect bones, researchers report in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.