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CSPI, doctors question cholesterol recommendations

Physician Practice Advisor, October 12, 2004

In July, the National Institute of Health's National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) urged millions more Americans to consider taking statin drugs to reduce their risk of heart disease. But after reviewing the five studies behind the new recommendations, more than three dozen physicians, epidemiologists, and other scientists, together with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), raised serious questions about whether scientific evidence supports the guidance. The researchers are urging the National Institute of Health to seek an independent panel to re-review the studies.

The new, lower thresholds for considering cholesterol-lowering drugs apply to people with LDL (or "bad") cholesterol levels between 100 and 129. People who already have heart disease but have relatively low LDL levels between 70 and 100 should similarly consider taking statins, according to the NCEP. Lower thresholds were also proposed for millions of women and elderly people at moderately high risk of heart disease, as well as for diabetics.

But in a letter to the heads of the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the NCEP, the physicians and scientists urge an independent review of the scientific studies behind the new recommendations.

"The studies cited do not demonstrate that statins benefit women of any age or men over 70 who do not already have heart disease," said John Abramson, a clinical instructor in primary care at the Harvard Medical School, in a CSPI press release. "Furthermore, we are concerned about the findings from one of the five cited studies showing that statin therapy significantly increases the risk of cancer in the elderly."

Go to www.cspinet.org for more information.

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