"HDL-C, Is It Time To Stop Calling It The ‘Good’ Cholesterol?" - Tricia Ward
Nearly every consumer story on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) will include the phrase “good cholesterol.” Yet HDL-C raising drugs, including niacin and cholesterylester transfer protein inhibitors, failed to show a benefit in cardiovascular disease outcomes and multiple population studies show a U-shaped curve indicating a higher risk for all-cause mortality in people with very high levels. Is it time to retire the phrase “good cholesterol”? “Absolutely,” responded Robert Rosenson, MD, professor of medicine, cardiology and director of Cardiometabolic disorders at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who has chaired four international working groups on the biology of the misunderstood particle. “HDL can be a good, bad or neutral particle,” he said, explaining that it is the surface proteins that confer the cardio protective effects. Loading up HDL particles with cholesterol in a bid to lower cardiovascular risk was a mistaken therapeutic strategy, he added.
- Robert Rosenson, MD, Professor, Medicine, Cardiology, Director, Cardiometabolic Disorders, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai