Word: cholesterol
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...much-anticipated study released Nov. 9 at the American Heart Association's annual meeting confirms what doctors have long suspected: that inflammation may be as critical a predictor for heart-disease risk as is a patient's cholesterol score...
...Paul Ridker at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the study tracked about 17,800 people in 26 countries. Participants included men ages 50 and older and women ages 60 and older, who had high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) but normal cholesterol levels and no history of heart disease. Half the participants were given rosuvastatin (Crestor), and half were given a placebo daily for just under two years. The statin group reduced their CRP levels by 37%; their LDL, or bad cholesterol, levels dropped 50% to about 55 mg/dL. Among the 8,901 statin-takers, 31 suffered...
Several previous studies have suggested that inflammation, independent of cholesterol levels and other well-established risk factors, is an important marker of heart disease. But while it was clear that inflammation was a key player in disease, there was no real data to prove that reducing inflammation, as measured by lower levels of the CRP marker in the blood, could prevent future cardiovascular disease in otherwise healthy patients...
...study, published also in the New England Journal of Medicine, at least 250,000 heart attacks, or about 20% of the total heart attacks suffered per year in the U.S., may be prevented by controlling inflammation. Indeed, nearly half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels, a strong indicator that factors other than cholesterol and atherosclerosis - such as inflammation - are involved. "This is a new way to prevent cardiovascular events in an entirely new population that we have been missing," says Weaver...
Although JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in the Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) was designed to study inflammation, its findings also underscore the risk of high cholesterol. The study's statin group clearly benefited from reducing CRP, but they had also simultaneously lowered their LDL levels to nearly 50% below the government-prescribed target of 100 mg/dL. Experts say the JUPITER results may prompt serious rethinking of the current guidelines - an issue that health officials have already been debating in recent years. "I would not be surprised if, given these results, we determined that normal LDL should...