The "bad" low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels have NO association with heart disease rates

This study was published in Clinical Cardiology 2011 Sep;34(9):572-6

Study title and authors:

HDL-C Levels and Revascularization Procedures in Coronary Heart Disease Patients Treated With Statins to Target LDL-C Levels.
Elis A, Pereg D, Froom P, Lishner M, Segev D, Hermoni D.
Department of Medicine, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. avishayel@clalit.org.il.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21887688

This study of 909 male patients investigated the relationship of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels with revascularization procedures in men whose LDL levels had been reduced to under 100 mg/dL by statin use.

The study found the men who had the lowest HDL cholesterol had 24.2% more revascularization procedures than the men who had the highest HDL cholesterol.

All the men had been receiving statins to lower their LDL cholesterol. The statins had been successful in lowering their LDL-C to under 100mg/dL. This did not make a blind bit of difference to whether they had cardiovascular problems or not.

What did make a difference was the HDL-C levels. The higher the HDL-C, the less cardiovascular problems occurred. Guess what is the best diet to higher your HDL-C levels? A diet high in saturated fat. See here.

This study shows that it is worthless to take statins to lower your LDL cholesterol, as it makes not a jot of difference to cardiovascular problems. However it does show that high HDL cholesterol levels offer protection from cardiovascular diseases, and we have seen that a high saturated fat diet increase HDL cholesterol more than any other type of food.