Drugs for Millions of Heart Disease Patients

Given the new NHS guidelines, millions more patients with heart disease risks will be prescribed statins to have their cholesterol lowered.

Statins are a class of drugs that lower harmful levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad cholesterol". They slow down its production in the liver, as well as increase the liver's ability to destroy the existing "bad cholesterol" in the blood.

Statins will be prescribed to all patients presenting a 20% risk of having a heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years. Under current recommendations of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence indicate that statins should be prescribed to patients with a 30% risk.

This change will mean that approximately 3.3 million more heart patients in England and Wales will be eligible to receive statin therapy. Currently, only 1.8 million are receiving these drugs.

Five different licensed stations are currently available in the UK: atrovastatin, floatation, pravastatin, rosuvastatin and simvastatin, of which only the last one is available in a low dose of 10 mg. It is believed that statins save 6,000-7,000 lives a year.

As in the majority of industrialized countries, heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK as well: approximately 238,000 people die every year from heart and cardiovascular problems.

The guidance also makes other important points, such as the fact that statins are not sufficient to manage cardiovascular risks; lifestyle measures, such as stopping smoking, play a very important role, and should be taken when staring statin therapy.

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