High Cholesterol Has Tender Spot In Heart Disease

The link between ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL-C) and poor health outcomes, such as heart attack and stroke, may not be as strong as previously thought, reveals new research from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. The research findings are published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Previous research has suggested that using statins to lower LDL-C positively affects health outcomes, and this is reflected in the various iterations of expert guidelines for the prevention of CVD.

Statins are now commonly prescribed by doctors, with one-third of Irish adults over the age of 50 taking statins, according to previous research.

The new findings contradict this theory, finding that this relationship was not as strong as previously thought. Instead, the research demonstrates that lowering LDL-C using statins had an inconsistent and inconclusive impact on CVD outcomes such as myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and all-cause mortality.

The message has long been that lowering your cholesterol will reduce your risk of heart disease and that statins help to achieve this. However, our research indicates that the benefits of taking statins are varied and can be quite modest.

Researchers go on to suggest that this updated information should be communicated to patients through informed clinical decision-making and updated clinical guidelines and policy.

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Source-Medindia