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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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What Is All About The New Cholesterol Guidelines? Cholesterol can be found in every cell of the body. It is required by the body to carry out a variety of biological processes. It has 4 main functions: contributing to the structure of cell walls, making up digestive bile acids in the intestine, allowing body to produce Vitamin D, and enabling body to make certain hormones. Being produced by the body, cholesterol can also be brought into the body from food consumed. Cholesterol is a waxy and fat-like substance and it does not mix with the blood. So it is carried around the body in the blood by 2 types of lipoproteins, namely low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Cholesterol carried by LDL is known as the “bad” cholesterol and that by HDL is the “good” cholesterol. Too much LDL inside the body can raise the risk of getting heart disease and stroke. Previous guidelines recommended that people should have a total cholesterol level of less than 200 mg/dL, and LDL should be kept to 130 mg/dL for average people and below 100 mg/dL for those considered at risk of heart attack. For people at the highest risk like those heart attack survivors, their LDL should be kept to 70 mg/dL and below. Instead of placing emphasis on cholesterol levels, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have written a set of new cholesterol guidelines that focuses on an individual’s specific risk for heart attack and stroke. The guidelines, which are the result of the latest medical research, were published online November 12, 2013 in both ‘Circulation’ and ‘Journal of the American College of Cardiology’ (JACC).
Based on the new guidelines, doctors should prescribe statins to patients who are at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the short-term. However, researchers stressed that the goal is not to persuade more people to take statins but to help people reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke so that they can live longer, healthier lives. The new guidelines suggested statin therapy for 4 groups of people: those with cardiovascular disease aged between 40 and 75 having a 7.5 percent or higher risk of getting a heart attack or stroke within 10 years; those with a history of a cardiovascular events including heart attack, stroke, stable or unstable angina, peripheral artery disease, transient ischemic attack, or coronary or other arterial revascularization; those who are 21 and older having a high level of LDL cholesterol (190 mg/dL or higher), and those with Type-1 or Type-2 diabetes aged between 40 and 75. Patients not falling into the above 4 categories might also benefit from statins but the decision should be made on a case-by-case basis. Patients taking statins, according to the new guidelines, no longer need to get their LDL cholesterol levels to a specific target number because there is no evidence proving that one target number is best, though research clearly indicated that lowering LDL would cut the risk of cardiovascular disease. This certainly departs significantly from how doctors have treated cholesterol for decades. Doctors are also advised not to prescribe additional cholesterol-lowering drugs such as fibrates and niacin to patients who do not reach targets with statins alone since those drugs have not been shown to cut the risk of heart attack or stroke. In addition to statin therapy, patients should also adopt a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating a heart-healthy diet, being physically active regularly, not smoking, and staying at a healthy weight. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world, with stroke ranks second. By more accurately identifying people most likely to benefit from statins, it is possible to prevent millions of heart attacks and strokes over the next 2 decades. Statins are very safe drugs. In addition to lowering cholesterol, they have other biochemical effects that might also help lower the risk for heart attack and stroke. Nevertheless, it has a small risk for muscle problems and accelerating the development of diabetes in people with prediabetes.
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