Lowering Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease

What Does the Research Say About Lowering Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease?

Several studies have looked at the effects of lowering cholesterol to prevent heart disease. These cholesterol research studies have shown that the progress of atherosclerosis may be halted by lowering cholesterol. In some cases, it may even be reversed. This results in fewer people developing and dying from heart disease. It also lowers the number of people with heart disease who have another heart attack or die from heart disease. Examples of these studies include the:

 

 

The Framingham Heart Study established that high blood cholesterol is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Results of the Framingham study showed that the higher the cholesterol level, the greater the risk for heart disease. On the other end of the spectrum, heart disease is uncommon when total cholesterol levels are below 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).

 

A 1994 study called the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (also known as 4S) found that lowering cholesterol can prevent heart disease and heart attacks and reduce related deaths in men and women who already have heart disease and high cholesterol.

 

For over 5 years, more than 4,400 patients with heart disease and total cholesterol levels of 213 mg/dL to 310 mg/dL were given either a cholesterol-lowering medication or a placebo (a dummy pill that looks exactly like the medication). The drug they received was known as a statin, and it reduced total cholesterol levels by 25 percent and LDL cholesterol levels by 35 percent.

 

The study found that in those receiving statin drugs:

 

 

A very important finding to emerge from this study was that deaths from causes other than cardiovascular disease were not increased, and so the 42 percent reduction in heart disease deaths resulted in a 30 percent drop in overall deaths from all causes.

 

The 4S researchers claimed that the following benefits could be expected if doctors were to treat their heart disease patients for the same 5-year period and lower cholesterol to the same extent. For every 1,000 patients: