Word: statins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
About a??year??ago, my doctor put me on the statin drug Lipitor. My LDL--the bad cholesterol--was a bit high, and diet and exercise hadn't reduced it very much. The drug worked. At my last checkup, about a month ago, my LDL had plunged...
Doctors have known for a decade that statin drugs can prevent or reduce the severity of cardiovascular disease by lowering blood levels of LDL. But how low is low enough? A landmark study of more than 4,000 heart patients compared a standard LDL-lowering regimen (40 mg of Pravachol) with an intensive regimen (80 mg of Lipitor) and found that even though both reduced LDL levels to below the recommended benchmark of 100 mg/dL, the patients on the higher dose were 16% less likely than those on the lower dose to get worse or die. The bottom line: what...
With heart-disease rates in the U.S. showing no signs of slowing, health officials urged Americans to reduce their cholesterol levels well below those that have been considered normal. The change was prompted by five scientific studies that highlighted the benefits of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. These studies identified a group of Americans at extremely high risk--among them, people who smoke, have diabetes, have high blood pressure or have suffered at least one heart attack--who could lower their heart-disease risk by cutting their level of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, from the previous target of below...
...trial of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor last March found that high doses lowered patients' levels of LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) and also reduced their heart-attack risk. That's why the results of a new study on similarly high doses of the statin Zocor are so disappointing. In the 4,500patient study, published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients taking high doses of Zocor fared no better than a low-dose group in terms of heart-attack risk, despite low LDL levels. Why? Perhaps because Lipitor works not just by lowering cholesterol but also...
...recommendations are likely to sharply increase the use of statin drugs. It's almost impossible to achieve such low LDL levels without the cholesterol-cutting medications, and last week consumer groups complained that the NCEP committee failed to disclose that at least six of its nine members had financial ties to companies that make them. But even the NCEP says the best ways to lower cholesterol are to get more exercise, eat less saturated and trans fats, and maintain a healthy weight. "Patients often think, Since I'm taking a statin, I'm protected," says Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist...