| ||Healthy Heart || | What Should Your LDL Cholesterol Be? Last
reviewed by Faculty of Harvard Medical School on August 29, 2012
By Thomas H. Lee, M.D. Brigham and Women's Hospital Over the
last few years, people have bragged if their LDL cholesterol
(the "bad" cholesterol) was less than 100 milligrams per
deciliter (mg/dL). However, the publication of two major trials
(PROVE-IT and REVERSAL) showed that patients with diagnosed
coronary artery disease had fewer heart attacks and deaths and
not as many fatty deposits in their arteries when their LDL
levels were much lower about 60 mg/dL. Those studies have
kindled a surge of activity and discussion among cardiology
experts and between doctors and patients. The debate boils down
to a simple question: How low should your LDL cholesterol be?
Getting a simple answer to a simple question is not always as
easy as one might expect, but there seems to be growing momentum
for defining "optimal" LDL cholesterol as 50 to 70 mg/dL. This
target is not "official" at least