Cardiovascular mortality decreases linearly as total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) decreases. The guidelines for cholesterol management are constantly changing, with lower and lower goals for LDL and total cholesterol. Many physicians are now trying to lower the LDL's of all of their patients with diabetes or coronary artery disease (CAD) to below 70. However, according to the guidelines, 70 is the goal only for those with CAD + multiple risk factors, or those with an acute coronary syndrome.
The following article on Fox News suggests that the President's physicians are aggressively lowering his cholesterol: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,141528,00.html.
Going beyond the established guidelines will further decrease a person's risk of CAD and cardiovascular mortality, but by only a small amount:
“Let’s say a person’s 10-year risk of heart attack is 5 percent, the statins would reduce that risk to just under 4 percent. So a person would have a maybe one in 100 chance of having a benefit from taking that statin,” says Sacks. “A lot of people would say forget it. Some people would say, ‘Well what do I have to lose?’”
Sacks says the fact is that many doctors will take a statin themselves even if they are very healthy because they believe the drugs are safe and have a low risk of side effects.
Personally, if my LDL was above 100 I would take a Statin, even though with my minimal risk factors a Statin would not be officially indicated until my LDL reached 160.
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Facts Believed to be Associated With All Statin Medications:
Statins are a class of medications specifically prescribed to lower LDL- one of five lipid parameters of a person’s lipid profile. There are 6 available statins to choose- with three that are combination drugs that have a statin as a component of these medications. There are other classes of medications for lipid management, such as bile acid sequestrants and nicotinic acid, which is known as niacin. Yet the side effect profile is more unfavorable of these classes of medications compared with the statin class.
One’s cholesterol level is primarily due to how they produce cholesterol in their liver, which is overall genetically determined. This level is also determined by one’s lifestyle and diet as well. If a person has too much cholesterol in their blood, it can lead to hardening and narrowing of their arteries, which can lead to cardiovascular events.
To measure one’s cholesterol, a blood test called a lipid profile is obtained from a person after they have fasted for at least 12 hours. The test should also be performed only if the person is free of any acute illness, as this may affect true lipid measures. If the results prove to be abnormal, lipid lowering therapy may be initiated, according to the discretion of the person’s health care provider. This therapy usually involves a statin medication.
Adverse events associated with the statin class of pharmaceuticals are thought to occur more often than they are reported- with high doses of statins prescribed to patients in particular at times that may not be necessary to control their dyslipidemia based on their lipid profile. However, since this class of drugs has existed for use for over 20 years, statins are considered safe and effective for enhancing the clearance of LDL noted to be elevated in the lipid profiles of patients. Also, they have proven to reduce cardiovascular mortality with one who is treated with a statin that has dyslipidemia. In addition to lowering LDL by up to 60 percent- depending on the statin- this class of drugs also raises HDL and lowers triglycerides, which are two other lipid parameters. Both of these effects from taking a statin drug are beneficial for the patient on a statin drug for lipid management.
Statin therapy is also recommended for those patients who have a greater than twenty percent risk of developing cardiovascular disease, or those patients that have clinical evidence of this disease
Additionally, there appears to be no comparable reduction in cardiovascular morbidity or mortality, as well as a difference in the increase of one’s lifespan, if one is on any particular statin medication for their lipid management over another, others have concluded. So caution should perhaps be considered if one chooses to prescribe a statin for a patient if they are absent of, or have only mild dyslipidemia to a significant degree. Furthermore, research should be done by the health care provider if they are under the belief that one statin medication provides a greater cardiovascular benefit over another. In other words, the health care provider should be assured that any choice of statin therapy for their patients is considered reasonable and necessary if the LDL in their patients need to be reduced, and the statin selection should be determined by the results that have been shown with a particular statin.
Abstract etiologies for those who choose to prescribe statin drugs on occasion for reasons not indicated by these statin drugs- such as reducing CRP levels, or for Alzheimer’s treatment, or anything else not involved with LDL reduction with prevention if not delaying the progression of cardiovascular disease, should be thoroughly evaluated by the health care provider. As statin therapy for such patients may not be considered appropriate prophylaxis at this point for any patient who does not have the indications for which statins are approved for and treat with patients. All other benefits that appear to have favorable effects in such areas are speculative at this point due to minimal research in other areas aside from lipid management, and require further research for these disease states aside from dyslipidemia, according to many.
Statins as a particular class of drugs that seem to in fact decrease the risk of cardiovascular events significantly, it has been proven. Statins also decrease thrombus formation as well as modulate inflammatory responses (CRP) as additional benefits of the medication. For those patients with dyslipidemia who are placed on a statin, the effects of that statin on reducing a patient’s LDL level can be measured after about five weeks of therapy on a particular statin drug.
Liver Function blood tests are recommended for those patients on continued statin therapy, and most are chronically taking statins for the rest of their lives to manage their lipid profile in regards to maintaining the suitable LDL level for a particular patient presently. Patients should be made aware of potential additional side effects as well, such as muscular issues.
Yet some have said that about half of all strokes and heart attacks that do occur are not because of increased cholesterol levels of these patients. Others believe that it is oxidized cholesterol that causes vulnerable plaques to form on coronary arterial walls, which is the catalyst for a heart attack, and that there is no medicinal treatment for the formation or stabilization of these plaques to prevent heart attacks or strokes. Others who promote and support statin medicinal therapy claim that these drugs, do, in fact, stabilize these plaques, and therefore are beneficial.
As stated previously, in regards to other uses of statins besides just primarily LDL reduction, there is some evidence to suggest that statins have other benefits besides lowering LDL. These other disease states include aside from what has been stated already, those patients with dementia or Parkinson's disease, as well as those patients who may have certain types of cancer or even cataracts. Yet again, these other roles for statin therapy have only been minimally explored, comparatively speaking. Because of the limited evidence regarding additional benefits of statin medications, the drug should again be prescribed for those with dyslipidemia only at this time involving elevated LDL levels as detected in the patient’s bloodstream.
Yet overall, the existing cholesterol lowering recommendations or guidelines should possibly be re-evaluated, as they may be over-exaggerated upon tacit suggestions from the makers of statins to those who create these current lipid lowering guidelines. This is notable if one chooses to compare these cholesterol guidelines with others in the past. The cholesterol guidelines that exist now are considered by many health care providers and experts to be rather unreasonable, unnecessary, and possibly detrimental to a patient’s health, according to others. Yet statins are beneficial medications for those many people that exist with elevated LDL levels that can cause cardiovascular events to occur because of this abnormality. What that ideal LDL level is may have yet to be empirically determined.
Finally, a focus on children and their lifestyles should be amplified so their arteries do not become those of one who is middle-aged, and this may prevent them from being candidates for statin therapy now and in the future, regarding the high cholesterol issue. Treating children with a statin drug for dyslipidemia is controversial presently.
Dietary management should be the first consideration in regards to correcting lipid dysfunctions that may exist in patients,
Dan Abshear
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