But if we start early enough in life, it may be sufficient to lower LDL to only about 100 mg/dL, which is consistent with country-by-country data that suggested heart disease would bottom out at a population average of about one hundred.3598 That’s why healthy lifestyle choices may wipe out 90 percent or so of our risk for having a heart attack, whereas drugs may only reduce it by 20 to 30 percent.3599 But that 90 percent is only if you can keep it down your whole life.
