Nov. 13 (UPI) -- New guidelines issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology could mean many more Americans will take statins to control their cholesterol and reduce the risks of heart disease and stroke.
The new system is a dramatic shift from the way doctors currently prescribe statin, a cholesterol lowering drug, and increase its usage across the board.
The old system looked at the intensity of a person's Low-density lipoproteins or "bad cholesterol" before prescribing medication. But the new guidelines encourages doctors to consider weight, blood pressure and other factors, such as whether patients smoke or have diabetes.
“We’ve been undertreating people who need statin therapy in this country,” said Donald Lloyd-Jones, one of the 20 experts on the committee.
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According to Roger Blumenthal, director of the Ciccarone Preventive Cardiology Center at Johns Hopkins University, the new guidelines could mean 50 to 60 percent of African-American men and a third of white men will have access to the medication. An estimated majority of black women in their 60s and a third of white women are likely to end up on medication.
While doctors have been asked to use the guidelines only as a starting point, most agree that this will increase the use of statins but reduce the use of other drugs used to reduce a patients LDL.
"The focus for years has been on getting the LDL low," said Dr. Neil Stone, professor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "Our guidelines are not against that. We’re simply saying how you get the LDL low is important."
Doctors said that this does not mean that LDL scores no longer matter, but rather it will be a factor in a new holistic approach to preventing heart disease.
Statins aren’t entirely without risks. Muscle soreness and fatigue are the most common side effects of taking the drugs. Other uncommon side effects are liver damage, rashes, elevated blood sugar or Type 2 diabetes, and memory loss. Also once a patient begins taking statins it most likely he will continue it for the rest of his life.
