Study: Cholesterol drug lowers blood clot risk

Statin drugs, taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease, also can cut the risk of developing dangerous blood clots that can lodge in the legs or lungs, a major study suggests. The results provide a new reason for many people with normal cholesterol to consider taking these medicines, sold as Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor and in generic form, doctors say. In the study, Crestor cut nearly in half the risk of blood clots in people with low cholesterol but high scores on a test for inflammation, which plays a role in many diseases. This same big study last fall showed that Crestor dramatically lowered rates of heart attacks, death and stroke in these people, who are not usually given statins now. "It might make some people who are on the fence decide to go on statins," although blood-clot prevention is not the drugs' main purpose, said Dr. Mark Hlatky, a Stanford University cardiologist who had no role in the study. Results were reported Sunday at the American College of Cardiology conference and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine - Yahoo

$29 billion reasons to lie about cholesterol - book

$29 Billion Reasons to Lie about Cholesterol: Making Profit by Turning Healthy People into Patients by Justin Smith. "We are told that high cholesterol levels pose a major risk factor for developing heart disease. We are also told that the consumption of foods containing saturated fat and cholesterol increases the risk for heart disease - the Cholesterol Idea. This idea has led to the mass prescription of cholesterol-lowering drugs, but do so many of us really need these drugs and what are the risks associated with lowering cholesterol?"

AHA: statins may drain energy along with cholesterol

Statins effectively reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, but they also appear to reduce patients' levels of energy and activity, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention. Beatrice Golomb, M.D., of the University of California San Diego, and colleagues randomly assigned 1,016 adults who were free of diabetes or heart disease but had LDL levels between 115-190mg/dL to receive either simvastatin, pravastatin or placebo for six months. They assessed energy and activity at baseline on scales of 0-10 and again on follow-up, with a score of -2 indicating "much worse" and a score of +2 indicating "much better." The researchers found that simvastatin was associated with a greater mean LDL reduction than pravastatin (49 mg/dL versus 40 mg/dL). Compared to placebo, however, they found that pravastatin was associated with a significantly higher proportion of patients who rated both their energy and activity levels as "much worse" and that simvastatin was associated with a significantly higher proportion of patients who rated their energy level as "much worse." "Future studies should extend evaluation to higher statin doses; and include assessment of measured activity," the authors conclude. - Modern Medicine

Statins could hurt your sex life

Statins are great at helping to lower cholesterol, but there's a catch, a new study suggests: The better they work at lowering cholesterol, the more sexual pleasure is reduced. The six-month, government-funded study involved more than 1,000 adults with high LDL -- "bad cholesterol" -- but no heart disease. Participants took either a statin or a placebo. In the study, the ability to have an orgasm dropped along with LDL levels, said study leader Beatrice Golomb of the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. Patients who took simvastatin, or Zocor, had the biggest LDL drop, but men rated their sexual pleasure as sinking by nearly half over the study period. Women were somewhat better off, "but some definitely were affected," Golomb said. Pravastatin, or Pravachol, reduced LDL less and didn't have a significant effect on orgasms. The study was presented at a conference of the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago last week. The findings should spur doctors to routinely ask patients about changes in sexual pleasure, said Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. - Sun-Times

Statins help elderly as well as young after stroke

Elderly people who've suffered a recent stroke benefit almost as much from treatment with a "statin" drug as do younger stroke patients, researchers report in the medical journal Neurology. The cholesterol-lowering statins reduce the risk of heart disease. A study called SPARCL (for Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels) was performed to see if statins also reduced stroke risk. The study compared the risks and benefits of taking high-dose atorvastatin (brand name Lipitor) versus an inactive placebo for patients who had recently had a stroke or a so-called TIA, or transient ischemic attack. TIAs are sometimes called mini-strokes, but experts say the condition is far from trivial. - Reuters

Non-LDL statin effects credited with improving stroke functional outcomes

Among patients presenting to the emergency department with ischemic stroke in a prospective cohort study, those with LDL cholesterol in the normal range thanks to statin therapy were later discharged in a significantly better functional state than those who had normal baseline LDL-C levels without the help of statins. The findings, which were independent of patient age, sex, and stroke severity, are consistent with observational evidence that stroke outcomes are improved in patients already on statins. But they go a step further by suggesting that at least some of those benefits are due to non-LDL-lowering effects of the drugs, according to the authors, led by Dr Latha G Stead (University of Rochester Medical Center, NY). Their report appears in the March-April 2009 issue of the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases.