THERE ARE MANY misconceptions about important cardiovascular metrics. Often people think their risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases is tied up with their total-cholesterol numbers. In fact, total cholesterol is barely more relevant to your cardiovascular risk than your eye color or your dog’s name. Even HDL cholesterol (what many erroneously call “good” cholesterol) doesn’t mean much to your overall risk profile.
When I look at a person’s blood panel for the first
