Cholesterol as a Predictor of Heart Disease

The use of lab tests to measure cholesterol as a predictive measure for future heart attack and stroke is important, but not sufficient to truly predict the occurrence of heart disease. All individual responses cannot just be tied to just one piece of data, like cholesterol level, because there are many factors that lead to heart disease. We need more information and we need strategies that encompass the every factor that increase the incidence of heart disease, not just one score such as a high cholesterol level, to determine whether someone should take a statin drug for the rest of their lives.