New guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and The American Heart Association will likely increase statin prescriptions. Previously, guidelines for physicians focused on getting patients’ LDL cholesterol below 130 for most people. People who were at higher risk were encouraged to get their LDL below 100, or even 70 in especially susceptible heart patients. Now, the new guidelines call for a multi-factorial approach. Anyone with heart disease or an LDL over 190 is supposed to be on a statin. So too are diabetics between the ages of 40 and 75.
The guideline committee also developed a risk calculator to help doctors determine which patients will benefit from statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs. This questionnaire takes into account age, gender, race, total cholesterol, HDL, blood pressure, diabetes and smoking history. If the calculator determines that a person’s risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke over the next decade is at least 7.5 percent, the doctor is urged to prescribe a statin to comply with the new guidelines. Following these recommendations will result in a doubling of the number of people taking a statin every day, from about 15 percent now, to approximately 30 percent, or 33 million adult Americans.
Not all doctors are delighted with the new recommendations. Drs. Rita Redberg (editor of JAMA Internal Medicine) and John Abramson (author of Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine) have written an op-ed piece for The New York Times urging patients to have “a meaningful dialogue with their doctors about statins, including what the evidence does and does not show, before deciding what is best for them.”
You can learn more about the evidence both for and against the use of statins by listening to our hour-long radio show #925, Will the New Statin Guidelines Help Your Heart? Or, if you prefer, read about some of the side effects of statins on our website.
