[Alex3917]

> It’s still the best measure we have, though you should obviously know that LDL measured while on statins is lower than it would be normally.

I'm not a doctor, but doesn't LDL basically just prevent the body from healing damage to the epithelium, which comes from things like high blood pressure and inflammation? Unless my understanding is wildly off base, it doesn't really make sense that a thing that merely slows down the healing process would be more predictive than the things causing the damage in the first place, given that if you aren't accumulating significant damage then your levels of cholesterol are somewhat moot.

[brandonb]

My favorite definition of heart disease is "when circulating fats in the blood (lipids) are pushed by a driving force (blood pressure) into a vessel wall that is vulnerable (endothelial dysfunction)." IMO this gives a good mental picture of how all of these risk factors fit together.