Don’t throw away your statins yet - LDL cholesterol is still probably bad for you

A new study has claimed that there's no link between LDL cholesterol and mortality in the elderly, but the majority of evidence disagrees

"Throw away your statins, they're not doing you any good," reads a tweet I saw earlier. The reason, a study published in BMJ Open that has found no association between low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and mortality*, in individuals aged 60 or over.

The study in question is a systematic review of cohort studies that have looked at this and, in 19 studies on a total of 68,094 people, found no evidence that LDL cholesterol levels predicted mortality. But a closer look at their methodology reveals the study is weak in terms of being able to provide evidence of (a lack of) a causal link, and there's currently much stronger evidence that does support of a link between LDL cholesterol and mortality.