Simvastatin at 80 mg Dose No Longer Recommended

The FDA recently put out this recommendation regarding simvastatin at the 80 mg dose. I rarely ever go that high anyway (since going from 40 mg to 80 mg rarely helps to bring down the LDL very much). But it's still good to know.

Alcoholism and high HDL in men?

There seems to be a high correlation (at least in men) between high HDL and alcoholism in my practice. I often ask about alcohol use (and sometimes ask the "CAGE questions" to screen for alcoholism) in men with very high HDLs. This correlation is not always true since many other factors can raise HDL. But the correlation occur frequently enough for me to do a minor screening for alcoholism in my population.