A new lancet paper challenges the supposition that high HDL levels (good cholesterol) prevent heart disease and attacks.
Concentrations of high- and low-density lipoproteins (HDL and LDL) in the blood were supposed to have opposite effects on the patient’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease, and both were also supposed to be causative. A high level of LDL (“bad” cholesterol) predisposed causatively to such disease; a high HDL (“good cholesterol”) protected against it, also causatively. You hear people discuss their levels with one another on buses and other public places.
The paper casts doubt on the second of the propositions, the protective effect of high HDL. It is true that people in a population with high HDLs are less likely to get heart attacks than people with low levels; but this does not prove that the relationship is fortuitous, rather like that between big feet and high intelligence.
Very interesting. Someone should tell the underwriters of the major medical insurance companies!