If someone with heart disease is already lowering their bad cholesterol below 70 with a medium-strength statin, taking stronger cholesterol meds probably won’t significantly reduce their risk of heart attacks, strokes, or heart-related death—based on current data.

If someone with heart disease already has low 'bad' cholesterol on standard statin pills, stepping up their treatment might cut their risk of heart attacks or strokes by almost half.

If someone with heart disease already has low 'bad' cholesterol on standard statin pills, stepping up their treatment even more can cut the chance of needing heart procedures like stents or bypass surgery by more than a third.

If people with heart disease already have low 'bad' cholesterol from statins, going even lower might help avoid heart attacks, strokes, or surgeries like stents.

For people at very high risk of heart problems, taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins plus another drug called ezetimibe lowers bad cholesterol more than taking statins alone — by about 13 points on average — and helps them hit their cholesterol targets better.

People with heart disease who take statin drugs and get their bad cholesterol down to a lower range (70-100) are less likely to have serious heart problems than those with slightly higher cholesterol (100-130).