DRUG COMBO COULD SAVE 100,000 FROM HEART DEATHS ; Plea for Victims of High Blood Pressure
Posted on: Monday, 5 September 2005, 06:00 CDT
NEW drugs could prevent 100,000 deaths from heart disease and strokes every year, it was claimed yesterday.
A major study has found a combination of drugs to lower blood pressure and tackle cholesterol could be the answer to cardiovascular disease.
Until now, cholesterol-busting tablets and blood pressure lowering pills have been prescribed separately.
But results from a trial of 19,000 British, Irish and Swedish men and women proved so successful it was stopped early.
Scientists now believe international guidelines for managing high blood pressure should be changed. And they say cholesterol lowering drugs should be used on almost everybody with high blood pressure.
Professor Bjorn Dahlof, who led the study, said: "High blood pressure is a major public health problem.
"Despite the availability of effective blood pressure lowering drugs, many people who are being treated still suffer strokes, heart attacks and other related diseases such as diabetes.
"Now the evidence offers us a simple and effective combination of treatments which both control the blood pressure and lower cholesterol to more effectively reduce the risk.
"This is very important news for patients."
Around a third of people in the UK - about 18 million - suffer from high blood pressure And a massive 66 per cent have higher than recommended cholesterol levels.
Over 7.5million suffer from both problems. There are huge risk factors for cardiovascular disease - such as heart attacks and strokes.
CVD leads to the early death of more than a third of men and a quarter of women - more than 230,000 in the UK every year.
It causes four of every 10 deaths - half from heart disease, 28 per cent from strokes.
The old drugs used for high blood pressure cut the heart attack risk by 20 per cent and strokes by 40 per cent.
But the new combination reduces them again by 48 per cent and 44 per cent
Source: Daily Record; Glasgow (UK)
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