Good Cholesterol Levels May Help Prevent Heart Failure

New research published in the journal Circulation suggests that unhealthy cholesterol levels can affect your risk for heart failure, a serious condition that occurs when the heart can't pump enough blood throughout the body.

Heart Failure and Cholesterol

Researchers analyzed data from nearly 7,000 men and women enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study. The study was designed to identify common factors that contribute to heart disease risk.

None of the volunteers, whose average age was 44 years, had heart disease at the start of the study. But after 26 years of follow-up, 680 people had developed heart failure.

Researchers compared heart failure rates to participants' HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels, as measured at the start of the study. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is often called "good" cholesterol because it lowers risk for heart disease. Non-HDL cholesterol (total cholesterol minus HDL) consists of different types of low-density lipoproteins. This type is associated with increased risk for heart disease.

Better Heart Health Tied to High HDL Levels

Heart failure rates were lowest among volunteers with high HDL levels (at least 55 mg/dL in men and 65 mg/dL in women) and highest among those with high non-HDL cholesterol (at least 190 mg/dL).

When researchers factored in age, sex, body mass index, blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking, they found people were:

• 40 percent less likely to develop heart failure if they had high levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol.
• 29 percent more likely to develop the condition if they had high levels of non-HDL cholesterol.
  

In addition to these heart failure findings, the risk for heart attack among the study group was 13 percent higher in participants with high non-HDL cholesterol and 25 percent lower in those with high HDL cholesterol. These findings are in line with prior research.