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Nov. 10, 2008 -- Even if your cholesterol level is low, you may still benefit from cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
The landmark JUPITER study now shows that statin drugs halve the risk of heart disease for people with normal cholesterol levels but high levels of a protein called CRP.
CRP itself doesn't cause heart disease. But now it's clear that CRP -- when measured with a high-sensitivity test -- helps identify people who can benefit from statin drugs.
An estimated 7.4 million Americans -- 4.3% of U.S. adults -- have CRP and cholesterol levels similar to those of patients in the JUPITER study.
What does this mean to you? Here are WebMD's answers to this and other questions.
Statins are a class of drugs that reduce LDL "bad" cholesterol. They inhibit a liver enzyme needed to build cholesterol molecules.
Statins include the prescription drugsCrestor, Lescol, and Lipitor. Three other statin drugs are available as brand name or generic drugs: lovastatin (original brand name, Mevacor), pravastatin (original brand name, Pravachol), and simvastatin (original brand name, Zocor).
Doctors now discuss cholesterol lowering with patients whose LDL levels are high -- 130 milligrams per deciliter or more. Cholesterol lowering begins with increased exercise and improved diet.
If lifestyle change does not cut cholesterol, doctors may prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs. Statins are the most popular of these drugs.
Doctors may prescribe statins for patients with LDL cholesterol levels lower than 130 if they have other factors that put them at high risk of heart disease. These factors include high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, family history of heart disease, and personal history of heart disease.
The JUPITER study enrolled nearly 18,000 apparently healthy men and women at a median age of 66. They did not have high cholesterol; their median LDL cholesterol level was 108. That's within the range considered "acceptable" by the American Heart Association.
However, these men and women had relatively high blood levels of CRP, a protein linked to inflammation. Inflammation plays a major role in cholesterol-linked narrowing of arteries and in the deadly bursting of cholesterol plaques in arterial walls.
Studies suggest that people with CRP levels higher than 3 milligrams per liter have more than twice the risk of heart disease as do people with CRP levels of 1 milligram per liter or lower. JUPITER study participants had a median CRP level over 4 milligrams per liter (and all had CRP levels of 2 milligrams per liter or higher).
Even so, under current treatment guidelines most doctors would not recommend statin treatment for such patients.
Half the study participants received the statin Crestor at a dose of 20 milligrams per day; the other half received an inactive placebo pill. After nearly two years, those taking Crestor had half as many serious cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke, or death from heart disease or stroke) as those in the placebo group.
Risk was not large in either group. Over the two-year period, 1.8% of those in the placebo group and 0.9% of those in the Crestor group had a heart attack or stroke or died of heart disease or stroke. The difference is highly significant, and the safety board overseeing the trial called a halt to the study.
More people in the Crestor group than in the placebo group developed diabetes. It's not clear whether taking Crestor had anything to do with this.