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.

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 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 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 you lower your 'bad' cholesterol by about 1 point (from around 3.16 to 2.16), you cut your risk of heart attacks, strokes, or needing heart surgery by roughly a quarter—no matter if you use statins or other drugs that work the same way.

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.