New Statin Guidelines Questioned

Last week, heart disease experts released new advice that could almost double the use of statin drugs. These cholesterol-lowering drugs help prevent heart disease, heart attack and stroke. The new guidelines say doctors should prescribe statins based on a person’s overall risk of heart disease or stroke, not to reach a specific LDL (“bad cholesterol”) target number. A new online risk calculator was introduced to help doctors determine a patient’s risk. Two doctors from Harvard Medical School say that the new risk calculator exaggerates a person’s risk of heart disease or stroke. This could result in doctors recommending cholesterol-lowering drugs to millions of people who may not need them. The doctors tested the calculator on their own using newer data than was used to make the calculator. The New York Times reported on the dispute. HealthDay News wrote about it November 18.