Can i improve my coronary artery disease my improving my cholesterol?

Lowering cholesterol: Elevated cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, and people with elevated cholesterol and other risk factors such as smoking or high blood pressure are at greater risk. Lowering cholesterol with drugs such as statins in patients with high cholesterol or increased risk has been shown to reduce risk of heart disease, stroke, & death .These drugs are not for everyone, use with md supervision.

Absolutely: By maintaining a cholesterol to HDL ratio of 3:1 or less, and by keeping your LDL below 100, you can not only stop the progression of coronary artery disease, you could, per studies, actually reverse the course of progressive disease.

Yes: Studies show that raising HDL ("good") cholesterol levels above 45 mg/dl can result in plaque regression. It should be noted, however, that there should not be an expectation that one goes from 40% blockage due to plaque to 0% blockage. Any regression that is to occur will occur with the "soft" plaque, the more recently deposited plaque.

Yes: For individuals with elevated LDL ("bad") cholesterol, studies show that reducing LDL levels to less than 70 mg/dl will result in a cessation of plaque deposition.

Yes: There are multiple studies to show the outcome in patients with coronary disease (CAD) is significantly improved by lowering the bad cholesterol (ldl). This presumably leads to plaque stabilization which is possibly the reason these drugs lead to lessening of the event (death, heart attack, etc.) rate in this patient population.

Absolutely: Plaque build up and particlarly plaque rupture involves cholesterol directly. Therefore, by improving cholesterol one can contain the rate of plaque buidl up. When using certain type of medications known as statins, we can slow down build up of plaque as well as (more improtantly) prevent plaque rupture which is the inciting event in a heart attack.