Pravachol, Pravastatin News

July 1, 2009 -- Millions of people without established heart disease could benefit from cholesterol -lowering statin therapy even if they don't have high cholesterol , a new analysis suggests.

A study published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine shows that for elderly people at risk of cardiovascular disease, the presence of inflammatory markers in the blood can identify that an individual is at a higher risk of a fatal rather than a non-fatal heart attack or stroke.

The Phase III data were presented today by Kowa, at the XV International Symposium on Atherosclerosis in Boston .

Dear Dr. Donohue: My doctor wants me to take a statin drug even though my total cholesterol is normal, and my LDL cholesterol isn't very high.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My doctor wants me to take a statin drug even though my total cholesterol is normal and my LDL cholesterol isn't very high.

Q: Should I be on a 'Statin' medication? A: Statins are drugs that are used to lower cholesterol and are being touted as one of the wonder drugs of the 21st century.

The FDA has ordered a halt to approvals of drugs relying on data from a generic drug factory in India that was found to be falsifying data.

Taking a cholesterol-lowering statin after a stroke reduces the risk of a second stroke, new research shows.

This is the latest in our weekly series comparing three ways to accomplish common tasks by price and quality.

Giving patients a cholesterol-busting statin drug during a coronary emergency can save lives and reduce the incidence of longer-term problems, Czech researchers say.

Statins more effectively lower cholesterol in the summer than in the winter, a fact that may need to be considered by clinicians prescribing the medications to patients with acute coronary syndrome , according to a study in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology .

An increasing number of studies show that elevated serum cholesterol levels might be part of the cause of Alzheimer's disease, but a new review of studies says that, even so, the most successful class of cholesterol-lowering medicines will not stave off the condition.

Cholesterol-busting statins may lower the odds of suffering from a heart attack or stroke , but they don't appear to ward off dementia as researchers had hoped, a new review of clinical trials suggests.

JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association , Vol. 288, No. 23. , pp.

Published: Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, March 20, 2009 at 2:02 p.m. Dear Dr.

If you've just started using cholesterol lowering drugs and feel tired you're not alone.

Statins effectively reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, but they also appear to reduce patients' levels of energy and activity, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's 49th ...

BMJ , Vol. 317, No. 7154. , pp. 307-312. guhjy Abstract Objectives: To develop the number needed to screen, a new statistic to overcome inappropriate national strategies for disease screening.

People prescribed widely used cholesterol-busting drugs called statins may be more likely to feel fatigued than those who don't, a new study finds.

A U.S. study suggests some statin drugs used to lower cholesterol may also reduce sexual pleasure, researchers said.