Statins in the Spotlight

By Quinn Phillips Two weeks ago, at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association, that group — in partnership with the American College of Cardiology — released sweeping new guidelines on drug treatments for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Of the new recommendations contained within the guidelines, the one that is getting the most attention is a dramatic expansion in the number of people for whom statin drugs are recommended. Statins — the group of cholesterol-lowering drugs that includes atorvastatin (brand name Lipitor), simvastatin (Zocor), and rosuvastatin (Crestor) — were previously recommended for people with existing heart disease, and for those with at least a 10% to 20% risk of developing heart disease over the next 10 years. Under the new guidelines, statins are recommended for anyone with a 10-year risk level of at least 7.5%, and can be considered for anyone with a risk level of at least 5%. These numbers translate to millions more people taking statins in the United States — by one estimate, an increase of 70% in the number of healthy people taking the drugs. A number of factors are used to estimate a person's 10-year heart disease risk, including age, weight, cholesterol and other lipid levels, and whether someone has Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Previously, regardless of a person's 10-year risk level, statins were only recommended for people without heart disease when their LDL (low-density-lipoprotein, or "bad") ch...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs