It is official – raising your “good� (HDL) cholesterol is important, and Torcetrapib can help us do just that.

Torcetrapib is a new drug manufactured by Pfizer. FDA has not approved it yet, but it shows promising results in an early trial. It could raise HDL levels by as much as 60 percent.

According to ABC News, doctors knew all along that “good� cholesterol could help prevent heart disease. Nonetheless, their focus has mostly been on reducing “bad� (LDL) cholesterol.

Why would that be? Allegedly, only a recent study was able to show how “good� cholesterol could help prevent a heart disease. If that is true – how did doctors know that raising your HDL levels is as important as lowering your “bad� cholesterol?

Could it be that this sudden revelation has something to do with the timely appearance of Torcetrapib? I do not know, but the same article point out that vitamin B3 (Niacin) raises HDL by 30 percent.

There is no shortage of scientific evidence, that other supplements such as fish oil, garlic and green tea extracts, are safe and effective in raising your HDL levels.

On another hand, Lipitor, with its disturbing side effects is heavily advertised and prescribed liberally. What is wrong with this picture?

It just so happens that “cholesterol guidelines for general physicians have focused more on lowering LDL than on raising HDL…â€?, according to the same article – clearly, with booming sales of cholesterol lowering drugs, it must be just a “coincidenceâ€?.

Let me make a prediction right now - the guidelines will change shortly after FDA approves Torcetrapib or a similar drug.

It is not that we do not have the evidence. A more plausible scenario seems to be that they cannot reconcile with the fact that complementary medicine and nutritional therapy practitioners, have been talking about raising your “good� cholesterol for years. (Gasp!)

Do we need to wait for a new memo?