HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Oct. 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A large new study adds to questions about whether your “good” HDL cholesterol levels really affect your risk of heart disease.
The study, of nearly 632,000 Canadian adults, found that those with the lowest HDL levels had higher death rates from heart disease and stroke over five years. But they also had higher death rates from cancer and other causes.
What’s more, there was no evidence that very high HDL levels — above 90 mg/dL — were desirable.
People with HDL that high were more likely to die of noncardiovascular causes, compared to those with HDL levels in the middle, the study found.
The fact that low HDL was linked to higher death rates from all causes is key, said lead researcher Dr. Dennis Ko.
That suggests it’s just a “marker” of other things, such as a less healthy lifestyle or generally poorer health, he said.
That also means it’s unlikely that low HDL directly contributes to heart disease, added Ko, a senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto.
“This study is going against the conventional wisdom,” he said.
But the reality is, doctors are already shifting away from the conventional wisdom, said cardiologist Dr. Michael Shapiro.
Shapiro, who was not involved in the study, is a member of the American College of Cardiology’s Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Section.
“Many people know that HDL is the ‘good’ cholesterol,” he said. “But they may not know that the medical community is moving away from the idea that we’ve got to raise low HDL.”
That’s in part because of the results of several clinical trials that tested the vitamin niacin and certain medications that boost HDL levels.
The studies found that while the treatments do raise HDL, they make no difference in people’s risk of heart trouble.
On top of that, Shapiro said, research has shown that gene variants associated with HDL levels have no connection to the risk of cardiovascular disease.
No one is saying that doctors and patients should ignore low HDL levels. Levels below 40 mg/dL are linked to a heightened risk of heart disease.
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