At one point, back in the dawn of the Cholesterol Age, like, say, five years ago, the “safe” upper limit for LDLs was assumed to be around 160 mg/dl. Now, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association have all put their stamps of approval on the National Cholesterol Education Program’s (NCEP) recommendations for new, lower levels of LDLs based on the presence of the risk factors I list under “Cholesterol and heart disease.” You know — diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity . . . those risk factors.
For healthy people with two or more risk factors, the new goal is to push LDLs below 130 mg/dl. For high-risk patients with heart disease or blood vessel problems and more than two risk factors, it’s LDLs below 100 mg/dl. For very high-risk patients who are hospitalized with heart disease or have heart disease plus several risk factors, LDLs should be under 70 mg/dl. If necessary, the NCEP suggests using cholesterol-busting “statin” drugs such as atorvastatin (Lipitor).
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