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- Published on: 5 July 2021
- Published on: 5 July 2021More evidence that high LDL-cholesterol is beneficial
That the mortality of patients with cardiogenic shock is inversely associated with low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), as documented by Jin et al.1 is in accordance with our reviews of 38 studies, where the authors had followed more than six million people of all ages for several years after having measured their LDL-C.2,3 In almost all of the studies those with high LDL-C lived just as long or longer than those with normal or low LDL-C. These findings are of course most surprising because according to the official guidelines, high LDL-C is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the commonest cause of death in most countries.
However, many other contradictory observations have been ignored by the guideline authors as well.4,5 For example, people with low cholesterol become just as atherosclerotic as people with high cholesterol;5 LDL-C of patients with acute myocardial infarction is lower than normal and if it is lowered even more, their risk of dying prematurely increases.5 Furthermore, there is no exposure-response in the statin trials.5
Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is seen as a strong argument for the view that high cholesterol is the main cause of CVD, although multiple studies are contradictive.6 For instance, three large follow-up studies of people with FH have found that on average, they lived just as long or longer than other people.6 The few who suffer prematurely from CVD have inherited increased levels of vario...
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None declared.