# Comparative health risks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comparative-health-risks/89160>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2001, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comparative-health-risks/89160 "2001-10-23T21:18:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comparative-health-risks/89160/1 "2001-10-23T21:18:52Z")

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Which is worse for you - being 15 pounds overweight, or having a cholesterol of 300 (fasting)?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comparative-health-risks/89160/2 "2001-10-23T21:37:39Z")

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Wow. There are so many other factors involved, such as heredity, environment, age, gender, other health problems, lifestyle, that I doubt you could ever get a simple answer to that.

My guess is gonna be that it’s probably overall worse to have high cholesterol, because 15 lbs. isn’t that much to be overweight.

But it depends. If you’re a fashion model and you gain 15 lbs., your career is basically over and you’re “dead”, whereas you can continue to model clothes no matter how high your cholesterol is.