How does high-density lipoprotein (HDL) affect my risk of heart disease?

The more protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in your bloodstream, the lower your chances of having a heart attack. Results from the Framingham Heart Study (a long-running, landmark study of factors contributing to heart disease) and elsewhere suggest that every one-point rise in HDL lowers the risk for heart attack by 2% to 3%.

There seems to be an inverse relationship between HDL levels and risk for coronary heart disease. That being said, there have been questions raised by recent studies suggesting that raising HDL in patients with low HDL may not lead to an improvement in risk or reversal of heart disease. HDL seems to be a more complex particle than other lipoprotein particles and the formation, maturation and transport of the HDL particle may all be important to discriminate in the evaluation of HDL function and quantity.