It's also used in people who can't tolerate higher doses of a statin and need more cholesterol lowering.
"Overall, I'm very pleased with the fact that intense cholesterol lowering reduces coronary events in patients with aortic stenosis, " said Braunwald.
Based on these findings, Celera sells a diagnostic gene test that purports to identify patients who can benefit from cholesterol lowering drugs.
New techniques used in the study, such as using ultrasound to measure artery plaque, are generally difficult, and not as well understood as cholesterol lowering, they say.
But even the ones marketed as "low fat" or "cholesterol lowering" are loaded with sugar which the latest evidence suggests is the most potent driver of obesity.
What would make payers and patients want to pay such exorbitant prices for cholesterol lowering in the face of generic statins with their track record of safety and efficacy?
Previous studies have indicated that people with the gene variant have up to 55% higher risk of getting heart disease, and also that this risk could be mitigated by taking cholesterol lowering drugs.
Premature deaths from heart disease - the single biggest killer - are down by a quarter since 1997, with a third more heart operations, twice as many patients receiving immediate access to clot-busting drugs and cholesterol lowering drugs now prescribed to 1.8 million people.
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For cholesterol lowering, brand-name Lipitor from Pfizer and Crestor from AstraZeneca are the most potent "statin" medications, but generic versions of Zocor and Mevacor from Merck, or Pravachol from Bristol-Myers Squibb are all proven to prevent heart attacks and may do just fine for you.
They're trying to figure out whether the problems with torcetrapib come from lowering HDL cholesterol, lowering a particular type of HDL cholesterol, or from some unique characteristic of the torcetrapib molecule itself.
Finally, as with any cholesterol-lowering medication or supplement, eating a heart healthy diet, getting regular exercise and weight loss when appropriate should always be the first step toward lowering cholesterol.
It turned out that it was actually quite effective at lowering cholesterol and the reason it was effective at lowering cholesterol is that it was the same, it produced the same active ingredient as one of the drugs that a major manufacturer of pharmaceuticals used.
Researchers said giving patients the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor immediately -- regardless of their cholesterol levels -- could reduce the risk of death, new heart attacks and other bad outcomes by 16 percent.
Through the early nineties, cardiology journals were filled with debates about how useful lowering cholesterol was and whether lowering it too much might even be dangerous.
Diabetes UK says that because of the existence of statins - cholesterol-lowering drugs - it is relatively easy to control high cholesterol.
Vytorin combines Zocor, a generic that is the most prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug in America, with a newer medicine called Zetia that works differently from other cholesterol drugs.
Vytorin combines Zocor with a newer drug called Zetia that adds additional cholesterol-lowering oomph.
Two cholesterol-lowering drugs sold only by prescription were in lower doses considered for over-the-counter sale.
The study, called Prove-It, should spur many cardiologists to put many more people on cholesterol-lowering medicines.
Vytorin combines Zetia with Zocor in a combo pill to get an even bigger cholesterol-lowering wallop.
An FDA review raises a number of potentially significant safety concerns about the cholesterol-lowering drug mipomersen.
The selling point of Vytorin is that you Zetia boosts the cholesterol-lowering potency of statins.
That makes them the third best-selling class of drugs, after cholesterol-lowering agents and ulcer meds.
Merck is now beginning to market Vytorin, which combines Zocor with another cholesterol-lowering drug.
The cholesterol-lowering studies pose similar dilemmas for doctors and patients hoping to keep costs down.
The adults in the chocolate study were initially screened for separate research on cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Most already were taking cholesterol-lowering statins, aspirin and other medicines to lower their chances of heart problems.
Dr Bosetti said there was some evidence suggesting cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may help protect against prostate cancer.
Most approved cholesterol-lowering drugs belong to a class of medicines called statins, which work in the liver.
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