cholesterol-lowering statins

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Big Problem With Last Week's Big Cholesterol News

The online risk calculator may significantly inflate risk

(Newser) - The changes to the way doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins were described last week as "tectonic" and "profound"; today, the New York Times uses the phrase "major embarrassment." The issue: the online risk calculator introduced by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology to...

Pfizer Hopes to Sell Lipitor Over the Counter

But FDA is leery about letting people use statins on their own

(Newser) - Pfizer hopes to sell an over-the-counter version of its popular cholesterol drug Lipitor, the Wall Street Journal reports. But first it will have to convince a skeptical FDA, which is wary about letting people use such statins without a doctor's supervision. Pfizer loses the patent on Lipitor in November,...

Heart Pills Curb Risk of Prostate Cancer: Study

Statins also help urinary tract, erections, early findings show

(Newser) - Men taking cholesterol drugs to avert heart attacks may also be protecting themselves against prostate cancer and impotency, Bloomberg reports. A 15-year study by the Mayo Clinic tracked 2,440 white Minnesotans and found that those who took statins lowered their cancer risk threefold. The findings are challenged by another...

Cholesterol Drugs Cut Clot Risk
 Cholesterol Drugs Cut Clot Risk 

Cholesterol Drugs Cut Clot Risk

Large study looked at other possible drug benefits

(Newser) - Cholesterol-lowering drugs showed sizable effects on patients in a new study, but not only in the realm of lowering heart attack and stroke risk. The statins, which are sold under the brand name Crestor, also dramatically cut the occurrence of potentially deadly blood clots in healthy people, reports the New ...

Heart Attack Deaths Plummet 30%

Drop hailed as modern medical miracle, but disease still daunting

(Newser) - In what is being hailed as a medical miracle, deaths from heart attack and stroke have dropped nearly a third between 1999 and 2006, according to the latest statistics from the American Heart Association. Yet despite gains from better preventive medicine and more effective hospital treatment, one person still dies...

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