FOXNews.com: 'Good' cholesterol may not actually be that good

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'Good' cholesterol may not actually be that good May 17th 2012, 17:45 A new study finds 'good' cholesterol may not be as good for you as previously thought, the New York Times reported. A long held belief by doctors was HDL cholesterol, long considered the healthy type of cholesterol, could actually bring down a person's risk of heart disease.  The logic was, the more the HDL cholesterol in your blood, the better. However, a study published Wednesday in The Lancet has found that raising levels of HDL cholesterol may not have any effect on heart disease risk after all.  Using databases of genetic information, the researchers found that people who were predisposed to have higher levels of HDL cholesterol in their blood had no less heart disease than those who weren't predisposed for the cholesterol, the New York Times said. In addition, people with low HDL levels who were recommended to  raise them through diet or exercise, did not show any improvement in heart disease risk, even after their levels increased.  Drug companies who have attempted to manufacture drugs to increase HDL cholesterol and decrease heart disease risk have not had success in clinical trials either. "The current study tells us that when it comes to HDL we should seriously consider going back to the drawing board, in this case meaning back to the laboratory," Dr. Michael Lauer, director of the division of cardiovascular sciences at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, who was not connected to the research, told the New York Times. "We need to encourage basic laboratory scientists to figure out where HDL fits in the puzzle — just what exactly is it a marker for." Click for more from the New York Times.

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