WAHAHAHAHAHA!

Just ran across this med journal abstract.It starts with this statement:

BACKGROUND: Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for coronary artery disease, yet is associated with lower risk of adverse outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

Get that? High cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, but somehow people with high cholesterol have less of a risk of a bad outcome when they, you know, actually have serious heart problems.

They repeat:

RESULTS: A history of hypercholesterolemia was associated with lower in-hospital mortality (unadjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55, 0.62). This protective association persisted after adjusting for baseline characteristics (OR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.76) and prior statin use (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.80).

So if you have high cholesterol, it actually lowers your risk of dying of heart disease in the hospital.

So did the authors conclude that high cholesterol is not a cause of heart disease? Oh, heck, no. What do you think they are, quitters?

CONCLUSIONS: The association of hypercholesterolemia with better outcomes highlights a major challenge in observational analyses. Our results suggest this paradox may result from confounding due to other clinical characteristics, impact of statin treatment, and perhaps most importantly, the fact that previously diagnosed hypercholesterolemia is a marker for patients with more prior medical contact.

See? High cholesterol only protects you because it means you're more likely to be popping statins and seeing a doctor.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.