ProLipid

This calculator estimates your risk of getting a heart attack within the next 10 years and is based on the Framingham Heart Study.

The following table contains an overview of cholesterol and triglyceride drugs, together with a rating of their effectiveness, tolerability and safety:

The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) has published definitions regarding high and normal cholesterol values. These were endorsed by the American Heart Association and other health organizations and are displayed in the table below.

Three aspects of statin drugs can be compared: efficacy (by how much is my LDL cholesterol reduced?), safety (what are the side effects and how frequently do they occur?) and price.

The following is the distribution of blood cholesterol values in the population of the United States.

The data is taken from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) conducted from 1988 to 1994. It can be found in the "Third Report of the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (ATP III Final Report)", Appendix III-A, which is downloadable from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

Professor Law and his colleagues of the University of London searched scientific literature in order to calculate the effect of LDL cholesterol reduction on the risk of a heart attack. Given a pre-treatment LDL cholesterol level of 190 mg/dL (4.8 mmol/L), which was the average value of all the patients investigated, they discovered the following:

High cholesterol can lead to atherosclerosis, a process in which the build up of plaque inside the artery walls leads to the hardening and narrowing of blood vessels. The blood flow through these narrowed arteries is reduced.

If the coronary arteries that supply the heart are affected, it can cause heart pain and feelings of constriction such as angina pectoris, especially in times of physical or psychological stress.

... and HDL is good.

As you can see in this article, LDL (or HDL) cholesterol are actually indicators of how many LDL and HDL 'particles' are present in the blood.

This is the function of LDL and HDL particles: