Probably the biggest mistake in modern medicine is focusing too much on Total and LDL cholesterol levels as indicators of heart attack risk.
Well… it is true that elevated levels of both are associated with increased risk (22).
But the whole picture is much more complicated than that.
Total cholesterol actually includes lots of things… including HDL, also known as the “good” cholesterol.
Having high HDL actually raises your Total cholesterol number.
LDL cholesterol isn’t just LDL either… there are subtypes.
We have the small, dense LDL particles (very bad) and then we have the large, fluffy LDL (good). The small particles are associated with heart disease, while the large ones are mostly benign (23, 24, 25, 26, 27).
Studies actually show that Total and LDL cholesterol are poor indicators of risk compared to other markers, like the Triglyceride:HDL ratio (28, 29).
One study found that out of 231,986 patients hospitalized for heart disease, half of them actually had normal LDL levels (30)!
There are also studies showing that high cholesterol can be protective. In old individuals, the higher the cholesterol, the lower your risk of heart disease (31, 32).
Not to mention that cholesterol levels that are too low are actually associated with increased risk of death… from other causes, like cancer and suicide (33, 34).
Despite the weak predictive value of Total and LDL cholesterol, people with elevated numbers are often instructed to lower cholesterol by any means necessary… including a low-fat diet (which doesn’t work) and statin drugs.
Right now, millions of people all around the world are taking cholesterol lowering drugs without needing them, unnecessarily suffering the risk of serious side effects.
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