If you have an abnormally high amount of bad cholesterol in your system, the amount of good cholesterol still will have an effect on the possibility of heart disease, according to research released this week.

The higher one's HDL ('good cholesterol'), the less likely of having any kind of heart disease, even with elevated levels of LDL ('bad cholesterol') and with patients taking statin drugs to lower overall bad cholesterol levels.

Result: the research points to doctors that should not ignore a lower good cholesterol level even when patients are being treated with statin drugs. In fact, doctors should plan to battle low HDL levels as well if they are low.