Word: statins
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...level, which a routine test four years ago revealed was high. High cholesterol is a key risk factor for heart disease, especially in a patient Segal's age and with her family history (several close relatives had had heart attacks), so her doctor put her on a cholesterol-lowering statin drug as a preventive measure...
Segal was one of 24 million people taking drugs to lower cholesterol in the U.S. that year. The workhorse of American medicine, statins - first sold in the U.S. in 1987 and marketed under brand names like Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor - are designed to clear away LDL cholesterol, the waxy buildup that can clog arteries and trigger heart attacks and strokes. Doctors say the majority of current statin users are healthy people who don't have heart disease but who, like Segal, simply have high cholesterol. Use among this group, known as the primary prevention population, has made these drugs...
...Segal's statin ended up preventing her from living a heart-healthy lifestyle. A month after she started taking the drug, she suffered muscle pain so severe, she had to stop all physical activity and was unable to sleep at night. Although her husband, who was worried about her risk of heart attack, pleaded with her to stay on the drug, she discontinued using it. The muscle pain receded. "My husband was scared for me. Doctors scare you. But I was in so much pain, I told him I would have rather died than stay on them," says Segal...
That grim situation could have been avoided, researchers say. An estimated 12 million American women are routinely prescribed statins, which carry a risk of serious side effects. Yet there is little evidence that they prevent heart disease in women. In past research, statin therapy has been shown to prolong the lives of people with heart disease. It has also been shown to stave off the onset of heart disease in healthy at-risk adults. But researchers who have broken out and analyzed the data on healthy female patients in these trials found that the lifesaving benefit, which extends...
...researchers had hoped that treated patients would lower their risk of heart events because they were given both statin drugs, which curb the liver's production of cholesterol, and a fibrate, which mops up harmful triglycerides in the blood and boosts levels of "good" cholesterol. But all of the volunteers either already suffered from heart disease, or had two or more major risk factors for heart problems - including cigarette smoking, family history and high cholesterol - in addition to diabetes. That may have pushed their diabetes too far along to allow them to see any benefit from the drugs. "This...