New strategy to cut heart attack risk is effective in initial test

Id you are taking statins to control your cholesterol levels, you should read this article that I found released this week. They are trialling a different type of drug to help drop levels of LDL and it could be great for those who are not tolerating the statins very well. Here is part of the article. Check out the link for more information or click on the "Health Directory", one of my favourite links for similar articles.

Article Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/uoc--nst121407.php

"The first clinical trial of a new kind of drug to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease has been found safe and effective at dropping levels of (bad) low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by as much as 40 percent. High LDL levels increase the risk for heart attack and stroke.

The drug mimics the action of thyroid hormone and safely accelerates the hormone's natural ability to rid the body of LDL. It is unrelated in structure or action to statins, the widely used class of drugs to lower cholesterol, and may offer an alternative for patients who cannot tolerate statins, according to the research team. It might also complement the use of statins to further decrease cholesterol levels, the researchers report in "The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS).

Someone suffers a heart attack about every 30 seconds in the U.S., yet the best drug trials using statins show that the drugs reduce the incidence of new heart attacks and other coronary events by only about 35 percent, highlighting the need for new therapies, the scientists say."