https://paulnystrom.com/tags/ldl/Recent content in LDL on Paul NystromHugoen-usTue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://paulnystrom.com/posts/fasting-insulin/Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://paulnystrom.com/posts/fasting-insulin/<p>The features of metabolic syndrome have been defined since 1988 by Gerald Reaven. The 5 features include hypertension (HTN), elevated blood sugar (prediabetes or diabetes), abdominal obesity, high triglycerides (TG), and low HDL. Having any combination of 2 or more of these things significantly increases your risk of cardiovascular disease.</p> <p>Unfortunately, in my experience, these things are often ignored by primary care. There has been a decades-long push to solve for LDL and more recently ApoB. The long-standing belief is that LDL/ApoB causes heart disease. Conveniently for Big Pharma, they make a class of drug that has been worth billions that lowers LDL. These are called “statins” because the end of the generic name always ends with “-statin,” commonly known as Lipitor and Crestor among others. (Interestingly, LDL has never been a defining feature of metabolic syndrome.)</p>