Study Says Statins Underused
Posted on: Thursday, 9 November 2006, 21:00 CST
Results from the United Kingdom's Heart Protection Study indicate that statins are cost-effective therapy for a wider variety of patients.
The study involved 20,536 people with coronary disease, occlusive arterial disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
The researchers found that people who received simvastatin and/or antioxidant vitamins had better blood cholesterol profiles and large increases in antioxidant vitamin levels.
The incidence of major vascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, were significantly reduced in this population, and the treatment was cost-effective in people as young as 35 and as old as 85 who were at increased risk for these events, the study showed, even if that risk increase was no greater than 1 percent.
The study enrolled women, elderly people and people with average or below-average cholesterol levels. Half the participants received daily 40 mg of simvastatin, a generic statin, and the other half received placebos.
Half of the participants in each group also received antioxidant vitamins in daily doses of 600 IU of vitamin E, 250 mg of vitamin C and 20 mg vitamin A. The study is published in the Nov. 9 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Source: United Press International
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