A Lesson from the President's LDL Cholesterol Reading
Dr. Reiner, appearing on Berman and Camerota this morning was asked to comment on the President's numbers. He said that doctors were more and more aggressive at bringing down the LDL number and, indeed, he reported that POTUS is on high dose Crestor. At no time during the interview, did Dr. Reiner or CNN mention that the LDL number ALONE should not be used to prescribe statins--unless you're a cardiologist looking to increase patient counts; and, boy, do we give them an easy path to wealth. Scare the patient into thinking he/she needs statins and you have a patient for life. But back to LDL. That LDL number is an aggregate reading. If you break it up into its components, you may just be pleasantly surprised to learn that the component most responsible for the high number is NOT as dangerous. There are four components: Very small, small, medium, and large. You want lower amounts of the small diameter stuff. If you have larger diameter particles, you lower the risk of clottin...