Statins make the liver stop making so much cholesterol and also help the liver pull more bad cholesterol out of the blood.

The liver makes cholesterol using a key enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase, and if we block that enzyme, it lowers the 'bad' cholesterol in your blood.

A type of drug that lowers cholesterol works well in lab tests, but high doses can be toxic in animals, which might slow down its use in people.

Taking two types of cholesterol-lowering pills together works better and causes fewer side effects than taking a high dose of just one.

Blocking the HMGCR enzyme — whether by statin drugs or your genes — makes you about 11–12% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, and this isn’t because the drugs lower cholesterol.

Taking cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins really does lower cholesterol in Japanese people with high cholesterol, just like it does in others.