I tried to use the National Cholesterol Education Program's Risk Assessment Tool for Estimating Your 10-Year Risk of Having a Heart Attack. You can find it here: http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/atpiii/calculator.asp
I entered my data on the form, and I got back an error message, telling me to enter a total cholesterol value of 130 or greater! According to the calculator, even if my cholesterol went up to 130 mg/dL, I'd still have less than a 1% chance of having a heart attack within the next 10 years.
If I ran the National Cholesterol Education Program, I'd really educate people about cholesterol. I'd tell them the simple truth: that when you keep your total cholesterol at less than 150 mg/dL, coronary artery disease ceases to exist. Nearly everyone can easily achieve that goal by eating a low-fat (<10% of calories), plant-based diet.
Instead, the NCEP tells people that a total cholesterol level of up to 200 mg/dL is "desirable." Lots of people with this "desirable" cholesterol level are dying of heart attacks, which is why many people, including many doctors, are confused.