My comment is more general, not specifically in response to the specifics of the article on TC. FWIW, TC is probably not a great measure on an individual basis,

My comment is more general, not specifically in response to the specifics of the article on TC. FWIW, TC is probably not a great measure on an individual basis, but sort of interesting population-wide. Yes, folks agree high HDL is good, high LDL is bad. However, drug trials to raise HDL didn't work so well. > "Are there really any studies that attribute atherosclerosis to bacteria, or some of the other conditions you describe?" Yes! Many! - "Accelerated Atherosclerosis in Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases" https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.104.507996 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.... - "Deposition and hydrolysis of serine dipeptide lipids of Bacteroidetes bacteria in human arteries: relationship to atherosclerosis" - "The immune system in atherosclerosis" https://www.nature.com/articles/ni.2001 https://www.nature.com/articles/ni.2001 - "Is atherosclerosis an autoimmune disease?" https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-12-47 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-... - "Atherosclerosis and the role of immune cells" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4391004/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4391004/