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The Jekyll and Hyde of Statins
By Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, Medical Discovery News Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins are the most prescribed drug ever. About 30 percent of Americans are currently taking statins such as Crestor, Lipitor, Mevacor and Zocor. Overall, statins can be good thing, but as with all drugs, there are some negative effects. Statins lower cholesterol by inhibiting a protein called HMG-CoA reductase. Since high cholesterol levels are linked to heart disease, statins can reduce the risks of heart attack and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the United States. Recent reports from the American Heart Assoc...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - February 3, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news

Studies support broader use of cholesterol-lowering statins
The latest guidelines used to determine who should take a cholesterol-lowering statin to prevent heart disease appear to be more accurate and cost-efficient than the previous guidelines. That’s according to two studies led by Harvard researchers, both published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. For many years, the main deciding factor in who needed to take a statin was the level of an individual’s harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL). Updated guidelines published in 2013 by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association moved away from LDL and ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - July 16, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Drugs and Supplements cholesterol high cholesterol statins Source Type: news

Evaluating cardiovascular event reduction with ezetimibe as an adjunct to simvastatin in 18,144 patients after acute coronary syndromes: Final baseline characteristics of the IMPROVE-IT study population
Conclusions This trial is evaluating LDL-C lowering beyond previously targeted LDL-C levels. The results depend on achieving the desired separation of LDL-C with ezetimibe and on the assumption that ezetimibe’s lowering of LDL-C will have similar event reduction efficacy as the LDL-C lowering from a statin. The results could affect future therapies and guidelines.
Source: American Heart Journal - October 20, 2014 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research

'More adults should be taking statins,' says NICE
Conclusion Despite somewhat hysterical media coverage to the contrary ("millions more to be given statins," according to the Daily Express), nobody will be forced to take statins. If your GP does recommend statins, you should ask them to explain the benefits and risks for you personally of starting statin treatment. You may want to find out more about statins before making up your mind – the NHS Choices Health A-Z information on statins is a good place to start. If you do experience troublesome side effects while taking statins, contact your GP or the doctor in charge of your care. It could be the case that a...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 18, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication QA articles Source Type: news

Stroke in Patients With Aortic Stenosis: The Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis Study Clinical Sciences
Conclusions— In patients with aortic stenosis not prescribed oral anticoagulation, atrial fibrillation, AVR with concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting, and CHA2DS2-VASc score were the major predictors of stroke. Incident stroke was strongly associated with mortality. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00092677.
Source: Stroke - June 23, 2014 Category: Neurology Authors: Greve, A. M., Dalsgaard, M., Bang, C. N., Egstrup, K., Ray, S., Boman, K., Rossebo, A. B., Gohlke-Baerwolf, C., Devereux, R. B., Kober, L., Wachtell, K. Tags: Thrombosis risk factors, CV surgery: valvular disease, Acute Cerebral Infarction Clinical Sciences Source Type: research

Outcomes of Combined Cardiovascular Risk Factor Management Strategies in Type 2 Diabetes: The ACCORD Randomized Trial.
CONCLUSIONSIn the ACCORD BP trial, compared with combined standard treatment, intensive BP or intensive glycemia treatment alone improved major CVD outcomes, without additional benefit from combining the two. In the ACCORD lipid trial, neither intensive lipid nor glycemia treatment produced an overall benefit, but intensive glycemia treatment increased mortality. PMID: 24595629 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Diabetes Care - March 4, 2014 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Margolis KL, O'Connor PJ, Morgan TM, Buse JB, Cohen RM, Cushman WC, Cutler JA, Evans GW, Gerstein HC, Grimm RH, Lipkin EW, Venkat Narayan KM, Riddle MC, Sood A, Goff DC Tags: Diabetes Care Source Type: research

Statin use linked to small increase in cataracts risk
Conclusion This research using a large cohort of people from a military healthcare system finds that overall, use of statins for over 90 days was associated with a slight increase in a person’s risk of developing cataracts. Further analyses suggested that the risk was higher among people who did not have any additional diseases. From this the researchers suggest that risk may be higher when statins are given for what is called primary prevention, i.e. given to people with risk factors for cardiovascular disease but who have not yet suffered any cardiovascular disease events such as a heart attack or stroke. The study h...
Source: NHS News Feed - September 20, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Older people Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Cardiovascular Event Reduction Versus New-Onset Diabetes During Atorvastatin Therapy Effect of Baseline Risk Factors for Diabetes
ConclusionsCompared with lower-dose statin therapy, atorvastatin 80 mg/day did not increase the incidence of NOD in patients with 0 to 1 NOD risk factors but did, by 24%, among patients with 2 to 4 NOD risk factors. The number of CV events was significantly reduced with atorvastatin 80 mg in both NOD risk groups.
Source: Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions - January 7, 2013 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research

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