Modern human beings have to struggle with zillions of things everyday. Luckily, our brains have adapted to this messy situation by intentionally ignoring most of them. But one thing never slips out of our minds. Our own health sits on the top of everything else. The revered Chair Mao has spoken it well: “Health is the asset of revolution.”

Last weekend, I bumped into a friend who looked sullen and miserable. He just had a physical checkup. There was nothing wrong about the checkup itself. It was the blood results that bothered him. The results, unfortunately, are not completely normal. His high density lipoprotein (HDL) is lower than normal (less than 40 mg/dL).

In the era of internet, everybody is his own doctor. He quickly ran a google search and only discovered that the isolated low HDL is as dangerous as high LDL. In a sense, his protection mechanism is not well armed. What can he do?

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