Heart Health

Is "good" cholesterol still good for you?

New research questions the benefit of drugs to raise HDL, but lifestyle steps to boost good cholesterol are still recommended.

One of the fundamentals of heart-healthy living is that if your LDL (bad) cholesterol is high, you need to take steps to lower it. After all, bad cholesterol contributes to artery-clogging plaque deposits. On the flip side, doctors encourage us to also raise our HDL (good) cholesterol. That's because people with high HDL tend to be at lower risk of heart disease.

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