Mendelian randomization studies show a strong association between genetic variants affecting LDL clearance/production and cardiovascular disease risk.

“Now, mandelian randomization takes advantage of the fact that at birth, genetic variants are randomly assigned. So, in a research study, if you and I are in a research study, Peter, the research is just going to through whatever randomization process they have. Okay, Peter, you're doing this, Lane, you're doing this completely random. Mother nature actually does that by design which we can we now know identified I think around a dozen variants that will essentially change your LDL cholesterol levels right and they're variants that deal with uh LDL clearance LDL production uh how much cholesterol you absorb there's all different kinds of variants”