While some experts have recently recommended more aggressive cholesterol screening in childhood, less than 1 percent of adolescents 12–17- years-old may potentially qualify for cholesterol-lowering drugs, according to a new study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
According to the study, updated recommendations for cholesterol screening in childhood released last year by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Read the rest of this entry »

According to a new study, apparently healthy people who take cholesterol-lowering drugs can dramatically reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke. VOA’s Jessica Berman reports.
The 18,000 men and women in the so-called Jupiter study had normal cholesterol levels, something that would not ordinarily have flagged them as being at high risk for heart disease.
But they all had elevated blood levels of C-reactive proteins – markers of blood vessel Read the rest of this entry »

How Do I Know When It’s Time for Cholesterol-Lowering Medicine?
Monday, September 15, 2008
There are three ways to avoid taking cholesterol-lowering medicines: Eating a heart-healthy diet, getting enough physical activity and avoiding tobacco.
However, there are other factors that play into whether you may need drugs to lower your cholesterol levels, such as genetics or current risk factors, Dr. Richard Stein, a spokesman for the American Heart Read the rest of this entry »

Today, President Bush will participate in a roundtable discussion on
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) with small business leaders in Oklahoma
City. The President believes that the cornerstone of good health
care policy is ensuring that patients and health care providers are in
charge of medical decisions. Products like HSAs encourage consumer
ownership of health care decision-making and allow Americans to benefit Read the rest of this entry »

Until Akira Endo, treatment for high LDL-cholesterol levels-the bad
cholesterol-left much to be desired, a situation that resulted in an
unacceptably high incidence of coronary heart disease and premature death.
Dietary interventions and the few available drugs worked poorly and the
medications came with unwanted side effects. Many scientists also worried that
reducing cholesterol might be dangerous because the molecule carries out
essential Read the rest of this entry »

I am 76 years old, and I take Centrum Silver vitamins, calcium, low-dose aspirin, Crestor for cholesterol, lisinopril for blood pressure, Coenzyme Q10 and Osteo Bi-Flex for arthritis. My doctor has approved all this medication.
My problem: I have had gray hair since I was 35, and through the years it has turned white. Now I have black hair growing from the roots, and it seems to grow every day. I am very unhappy about this, as I have never had black Read the rest of this entry »

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2008)
— Popular cholesterol-busting drugs — statins — appear to lower men’s PSA values along with their cholesterol levels, according to researchers in the Duke Prostate Center and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. But whether the drugs prevent prostate cancer growth or just mask it is not known yet.
“Previous studies had shown that men taking statins were less likely to develop advanced forms of prostate Read the rest of this entry »