Since cholesterol became our prime focus for preventing heart disease the action we need to take to neutralize its threat has constantly evolved. We’ve had to adjust our diets and it’s now reasonably clear that both fat and sugar, sadly the food combination we crave the most, are bad for us. There are also howitzer like pharmaceuticals that have eclipsed statins, the medication we’ve utilized until now to nuke cholesterol, with a zero tolerance for the enemy and a capacity to pulverize the living daylights out of this troublesome fat.
But using heavy artillery, as effective as it might be, does not come without collateral damage. The best way to find out how much of a risk cholesterol poses is to get a breakdown of all its components by getting your doctor to order a lipid subfraction assessment next time you have a blood test to measure your cholesterol levels. Having this evaluation will allow for more targeted interventions which might mitigate the need for an all-out pharmaceutical assault.