If LDL cholesterol is the villain it is made out to be then lowering it — by whatever means — should produce a proportionate reduction in heart disease. It does not (see ENHANCE trial [1]).

And yet lowering cholesterol using statins has proved beneficial for people who have already suffered heart attacks. How do you explain this? One explanation is that statins work for these people not because they lower cholesterol but because they reduce inflammation and stabilize plaque.

The science behind this is not fully understood. Big Pharma has no incentive to research this because they are raking in money, and any further research could only slow down the gravy train at best.

[1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0800742