Why is it important to try to lower cholesterol if it is high and maintain healthy cholesterol levels?
Dr. Tan: The main reason to lower cholesterol is to decrease the risk of dying from a heart attack. Based on our biggest study to date (Lancet 2007), if you lower cholesterol even by about 4 mg/dL at age 40-49, you reduce the risk of a fatal heart attack by half; at age 50-69, by a third; and at age 70-89, by a sixth. This applies to both men and women. Small improvements can create a big impact. This is quite significant considering that heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. The generic guideline is to lower total cholesterol to less than 200 mg/dL — preferably with low LDL (also known as “bad cholesterol”) and high HDL ( “good cholesterol”). If you want more specific guidelines or want to figure out which factors affect your personal risk of heart attack, use a Framingham Risk Calculator. Even though managing cholesterol is important, we should still put it in perspective. For example, not smoking, maintaining your ideal weight, exercising, eating a good die
