My grandparents, and everyone in my parents generation, lived to be in their 80 or 90s.
With one exception: my dad. He only made it to 34.
I almost died at 28, and again, at 32.
The punchline is.................(without going into the details) is that I can no longer eat the "Mediterranean diet". So, we will see what that outcome is. The other half of the punchline is what will most likely do me in is all the crap that came about, from my cancer bout, at 32. (That is much too convoluted to go into. Trust me: it is all real, and really weird stuff.)
OK...................so what? What does this have to do with cholesterol?
About a year, ago, I talked to a researcher, who has a much different take on this matter. Everyone is hung up on numbers, because it is some simple metric, and it makes the "risk" involved easier to 'splain to the layman.
So they can "ask your doctor about...................blah, blah, blah. Which will do nothing except make us money, and cause a ton of side effects that we will try to hide from you."
(As an aside: you could not pay me to take a statin. I try to avoid NSAIDs, but some days...........well, I do give in.)
OK, back to the story..................
This researcher claims that new research (no, he did not cite references, as this was a casual conversation) shows there are 2 types of cholesterol, and only one is bad.
And it is NOT the HDL/LDL differentiation. "They" have found that one type of cholesterol is thin, and can freely flow through the circulatory system. The other is thick and gloppy, and they are trying to find out why there are 2 types and what their components are.
Haven't run into him, since, so can't provide updates.
"How art thou, thou gloppy bottle of cheap stinking chip oil?" Or something like that. (I could check IMDB to find the right words, but you can to that, if you desire.)
Anyway.
What do they call the guy who graduates last, in his medical class? (OK, it could be a gal, for those who think this is a sexist joke.)
Doctor.
Rimshot.