> Meanwhile, minimizing the risk of CVD, the leading cause of death worldwide, does seem like a good idea, no? Maybe. I read a bunch of papers on cholesterol

> Meanwhile, minimizing the risk of CVD, the leading cause of death worldwide, does seem like a good idea, no? Maybe. I read a bunch of papers on cholesterol and statins a few years ago, and my recollection of the results is roughly as follows. High LDL and high LDL:HDL ratio are consistently associated with higher risk of mortality from CVD, and this seems to be partly (but perhaps not entirely) causal. Statins can lower LDL and can improve this ratio, and for some groups of patients they seem to be an effective intervention for reducing risk of serious or fatal CVD. However, in the studies I looked at, statin therapy was only demonstrated to reduce all-cause mortality in certain groups of patients who already have CVD, or who don't have CVD but have extremely high LDL (or maybe it was LDL:HDL ratio, don't remember). In groups with lower risk, the benefits were not as great and seemed to be outweighed by the side effects in terms of all-cause mortality, and given that some of the side effects are immediate I would guess that this is also true for quality of life. This also meshes with the article's data that total cholesterol has a U-shaped relation to mortality. To the extent that this is causal, lowering total cholesterol with statin therapy may not be helpful unless it was really high to begin with. So my takeaway was that statins are a useful class of drug for some people, but that in America they are probably also overprescribed. My research might have gotten the wrong answer though. Obviously do your own and/or listen to your doctor.