This article waslast modified on 11 February 2018.

We reported in a 2008 news item that two groups had found a low ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL) level to be a risk factor for heart attack even in patients whose high level of  ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL) had been lowered by treatment with drugs (statins). A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicineon 21 December 2010 examined all relevant randomised controlled trials of statin treatment. The authors confirmed that the lower HDL cholesterol the greater the risk of heart attack, and found that this relationship was identical whether or not the patients had been treated with statins.

It would seem to be prudent for everyone, including those whose LDL cholesterol has been lowered by statin treatment, to maintain life style factors that have a beneficial effect on the level of HDL cholesterol: not smoking, maintaining a normal body weight, taking regular exercise and consuming low or moderate amounts of alcohol.