LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), known as 'bad' cholesterol, is the underlying reason why many apparently healthy individuals have heart attacks or strokes during middle age despite not having cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, smoking, obesity, dyslipidemia or diabetes. Even at levels considered normal, LDL-C, after age and male sex, is the main predictor of the presence of atherosclerotic plaques in the arteries. This is the finding of research conducted at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) and published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
Source: Medical Xpress
