Very interesting! I would point out, on the cholesterol side, that higher LDL is associated with longer lifespan — excepting people with familial hypercholerestemia. Also, statins seem to reduce the risk of arteriosclerosis (potentially at the expense of increasing other relative risks) BUT other cholesterol lowering / sequestering drugs do not show the same risk reduction. I would postulate that those statins are doing something in addition to lowering LDL that is providing that arteriosclerosis relative risk reduction. The most obvious candidate is inflammation reduction.

Please rebut if I’ve got this wrong. I’m not a professional — just trying to make sense of journal articles, primarily the ones reporting corelation — which can be problematic. For instance, we see cops around crime scenes — does that mean cops cause crime?