Almost half of these patients had "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, levels below 100 mg/dL, which is considered optimal under current guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program.
The new research -- based on data from nearly 137,000 patients at more than 500 hospitals -- suggests that current LDL guidelines aren't low enough to identify people likely to have a heart attack, said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, lead author of the study published in the American Heart journal.
"Falsely, patients and doctors thought they were being well-protected" if LDL levels fell within the recommended range, Fonarow said.
Dr. Sidney Smith Jr., who's on a panel of experts that's revising government guidelines on heart disease and obesity, said the study makes a good case for lowering LDL recommendations. "It certainly gives us an idea on where we need to focus our efforts," Smith said.
Steve - wow are these doctors in denial. How low are they going to go? Until the entire country is on a statin?
They should be changing the guidelines to focus on cardiac inflammation. We have known for years that LDL cholesterol is only one piece of the puzzle. Quelling inflammation is much more important. Diet, nutrients, and other CAM therapies can handle this issue. In tougher cases, red yeast rice or statins may be warranted.
Treating people with high CRP levels dramatically reduced the number of lives lost to heart disease and the number of costly and painful procedures needed to restore heart patients to health.
1 comment:
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