Here is the article talking about cholesterol with the view that total cholesterol is more important than the ratio of LDL to HDL, with the most desirable level at or below 160 total cholesterol.
This article and similar ones are the result of the scientific medical community attempting to protect the image they have built up over the last 50 years about the benefits of decreasing cholesterol. IT IS SADLY A Partially FALSE IMAGE. While they want to lower heart disease with lower and lower overall cholesterol levels, they fail to see the disastrous increase in infectious diseases and overall mortality as cholesterol levels fall to the low recommended amounts. See this chart on this page.
OF INTEREST: This fact is seldom mentioned in articles or studies talking about the health aspects between high or low cholesterol levels. In people with low levels, those who were naturally low without taking drugs are better able to fight off and recover from infections than those who forced lower cholesterol levels using drugs. This fact is revealed in hospital records. There could be an innate immune difference between the two cases. If one is naturally low in cholesterol, the body overtime may have developed other channels to fight infections that are absent in people with drug lowered cholesterol.