Scientists find wider uses for cholesterol drugs
According to new Australian research, cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, could help to prevent diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart attack or stroke, even if their cholesterol level is not high.
According to new Australian research, cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, could help to prevent diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart attack or stroke, even if their cholesterol level is not high.
Millions of patients around the world are prescribed the drugs to reduce their cholesterol, but the international research team claim that even more people could be benefiting from the treatment: 'what we have shown is that the key thing is to find people who are at risk of coronary heart disease or stroke and treat them with a regimen that reduces LDL cholesterol substantially,' said Dr Colin Baigent, an epidemiologist at Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) who co-ordinated the study. LDL, or 'bad cholesterol', deposits fat in the arteries, while HDL, or 'good cholesterol', carries it away. Baigent claims that lowering LDL with a statin could cut the risk of a heart attack or stroke by as much as a third.
The researchers studied the results of 14 previous trials involving statin treatment in 90,000 people. In addition to high-risk patients with low cholesterol showing positive results, they said people who had the largest reduction in their cholesterol level reaped the highest benefit, meaning that 'bigger cholesterol reductions with more intensive treatment regimens should lead to great benefits'.
The most renowned statins include Pfizer's Lipitor, Merck's Zocor and AstraZeneca's Crestor. They lower cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme that its production in the body. However, Bayer's cholesterol drug Baycol was pulled from the market in 2001 after being linked to dozens of deaths.
The research team found no evidence of an increased risk of cancer, or that very low cholesterol levels were associated with increased odds of suffering from other diseases, according to Baignet, who did, however, add that higher doses of statins were associated with a raised risk of serious muscle problems, although its occurrence is 'very rare'.