I'm not surprised. Shopping for a doctor who supports one's lifestyle choices is a common strategy. And all the scientific data in the world may be powerless when confronted by common sense. It's a powerful drug.

Although this will likely fall on deaf ears, since France is in Europe, the European Society of Cardiology recommends roughly the same LCL-c levels (>100 mg/dL for the general population, lower for high risk groups).

What about absolute risk? Well, you have to make lots of assumptions to produce a single line on a graph. With that in mind, assuming a healthy adult male in his 60s with no prior cardiovascular disease: