Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Low cholesterol linked to cancer risk

Statins are the world's top-selling drugs in lowering cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart disease, but a new meta-analysis that examined more than 4o,ooo patient records in 23 different trials of statins found that low cholesterol increased cancer risk although the study did not show that the statin drugs themselves caused the cancer.

The reserachers said their findings support taking multiple medications rather than high-dose statins to minimize the side effects and emphasized that patients should continue their statins treatments. The study is published in the July 31, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) 2007, 50:419-420.

In an accompanying editorial, John C. LaRosa said "these current findings provide insufficient evidence that there is any problem with LDL lowering that outweighs its significant benefits on vascular disease." Read the press release.

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