According to an article published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association,

the American Heart Association has recommended seven steps to improve cardiovascular health: not smoking, being physically active, normal blood pressure, normal blood glucose, low total cholesterol levels and weight, and eating a healthy diet.

Researchers looked at 20 years of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination — which studied 44,959 U.S. adults — and found the reduction in all-cause mortality was for:

• Not smoking (51 percent)

• Physical activity (15 percent)

• Eating a healthy diet (6 percent)

• Maintaining normal blood glucose (27 percent))

• Maintaining normal blood pressure (19 percent)

The authors also found that there was no increased risk for cholesterol levels over 200 mg/dl, but there was a 28 percent increased risk of all-cause death in those subjects with a cholesterol level less than 200 mg/dl.

This study was not widely publicized, most likely because it is another nail in the coffin of the hypothesis that elevated cholesterol levels cause heart disease.

Cholesterol is vital for maintaining cell integrity, and the use of cholesterol-lowering agents has not been shown to improve the longevity of women or men.

The only positive effect of statin drugs is a slight reduction (about 1 percent) in non-fatal heart attacks in younger men who have already suffered a stroke or a heart attack.

For all women and men who have not suffered a cardiovascular event there is no good data supporting the use of these agents.

More information about cholesterol-lowering medications can be found in my book, Drugs That Don’t Work and Natural Therapies That Do.