The Truth About "good" and "bad" Cholesterol

You've probably heard about "good" and "bad" cholesterol. Supposedly having high HDL (the "good" cholesterol) protects you from coronary artery disease (CAD), and having high LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) puts you at greater risk of CAD.

A large study of patients admitted to the hospital with CAD challenges this conventional view.

The table above shows the incidence of coronary artery disease among LDL/HDL groups in the study. Lower LDL levels were associated with a higher incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), contradicting the conventional view. However, the study confirmed the conventional view that higher HDL is associated with lower incidence of CAD. Both correlations were strong, but the HDL correlation was particularly powerful.

Then the study compared LDL and total cholesterol levels in CAD patients with the rest of the population and found that the CAD patients on average had lower LDL and total cholesterol levels, again contradicting the conventional view.

The full study is here: http://astute.cardiosource.com/2007/vposters/pdf/275_Fonarow.pdf.