TUESDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) — Methods to gauge blood cholesterol to determine vascular disease risk can be simplified, researchers in England say.
Their method measures levels of either total or high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good” cholesterol) in the blood or apolipoproteins (proteins that help transport cholesterol), without the need to have patients fast and without regard to another form of blood fat called triglycerides. Read More
TUESDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) — Long-term use of cholesterol-lowering statins appears to reduce the incidence of gallstones and the need for surgery to prevent the excruciating pain they cause, a new study indicates.
“We’re talking about people who have been taking them for about 1½ years,” said Susan S. Jick, director of the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Study at Boston University and a member of the team reporting the finding in the Nov. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “The protective effect seems to grow over time. The relative risk for them is about half the risk of someone who is not exposed to a statin.” Read More
MONDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) — Chemicals used in food packaging, paper and textile coatings may affect blood cholesterol levels in people, U.S. researchers have found.
Previous studies have found that polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) are present in the bodies of most people. In this new study, a team at the Boston University School of Public Health analyzed the association between serum cholesterol levels and four PFCs: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS). Read More
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) — U.S. researchers have identified a common gene mutation linked to side effects in people taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
Statins can reduce high cholesterol and lower the risk of heart attack or stroke. But 25 percent to 50 percent of people prescribed the potentially lifesaving drugs stop taking them after a year because of side effects, in particular muscle aches. Read More
FRIDAY, Oct. 2 (HealthDay News) — Giving daily doses of a statin and a blood pressure-lowering ACE inhibitor to people at high risk for a heart attack or stroke reduced their incidence by more than 60 percent in two years, researchers report.
People in the study all had diabetes or a history of cardiovascular disease, but the drug regimen probably could provide similar benefits to anyone vulnerable to cardiovascular trouble because of obesity, high blood pressure or simply old age, said Dr. R. James Dudl, diabetes clinic lead at the Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute in Oakland, Calif., and lead author of a report in the October issue of the American Journal of Managed Care. Read More
TUESDAY, Sept. 22 (HealthDay News) — Statins could be as beneficial for people with acceptable cholesterol readings but high levels of inflammation as they are for those with high cholesterol levels, a new analysis finds.
An earlier study of more than 17,000 participants, known as the JUPITER trial, found that rosuvastatin (Crestor) cut the risk for serious vascular problems in people whose cholesterol levels were not high while high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels were. Read More
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9 (HealthDay News) — Women with metabolic syndrome are at high risk of developing peripheral artery disease, a condition that dramatically raises the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Using data on more than 27,000 women taking part in the Women’s Health Study, researchers identified participants with metabolic syndrome, a collection of symptoms including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, high triglyceride levels and insulin resistance. Read More
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) — Despite their popularity, so-called “combination therapies” may not be the most effective treatment for high cholesterol, Canadian researchers report.
In their review, the scientists analyzed data from 102 studies that tested combination therapies involving ezetimibe, niacin, bile acid sequestrants and omega-3 fatty acids. They concluded that there is little evidence to support the widespread use of combination therapies to lower cholesterol.
The results of this comprehensive review of clinical studies are important, as lowering cholesterol has been shown to decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke, and more than 35 million Canadians and Americans are prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs each year, according to a news release from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Read More
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) — A dose of a cholesterol-lowering statin before vascular surgery reduces the risk of complications and death, new Dutch research shows.
The study of nearly 500 patients who had surgery for a variety of blood-vessel problems found the incidence of heart artery blockage and deaths was halved in those who received an 80-milligram dose of fluvastatin before their operation, compared to those given a placebo. Read More
MONDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) — Having a negative, inhibited personality may increase the risk of death among people with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a Dutch study suggests.
PAD occurs when plaque accumulates in arteries that supply blood to areas of the body other than the heart and brain.
The study included 184 PAD patients, average age 64.8, in the Netherlands. They filled out a personality questionnaire designed to assess their distress, negativity and social inhibition. During four years of follow-up, 16 patients (8.7 percent) died. After adjusting for other factors, the researchers concluded that PAD patients with a distressed personality had a higher risk of death. Read More
