On the statins, correcting plasma lipid levels, and preventing the clinical sequelae of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease.

The statins correct plasma lipid levels optimally, yet the real magnitude of their benefits is marginal and certainly not better than attained with agents that do not affect plasma lipid levels. It is suggested that some of our recommendations and actions relating to plasma cholesterol levels and to atherosclerosis are based on concepts that are fundamentally flawed and need to be revised.

The effect of oxidizing cholesterol on gastrointestinal absorption, plasma clearance, tissue distribution, and processing by endothelial cells.

Little is known about the absorption or metabolism of oxysterols. Toward better appreciating the metabolic consequences of oxidizing cholesterol, we compared labeled cholesterol with the labeled oxysterols 7 alpha-hydroxycholesterol, 7 beta-hydroxycholesterol, and 7-ketocholesterol prepared from [4-14C]cholesterol, [26,26,26,27,27,27-2H6]cholesterol, and [23,24,25,26,27-13C5] cholesterol. Gastrointestinal absorption of oxysterols in rats was 91.