Health News
Anti-Cholesterol Drug May Reverse Heart Disease
March 16, 2006
According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, doctors have found what they describe as the best evidence yet that heart disease can be reversed, and not just kept from getting worse.
That finding came Monday in a study in which people saw their "bad cholesterol" reduced to the lowest levels ever seen -- and, as a result, had blockages in their blood vessels shrink.
Two-thirds of the 349 study participants had regression of coronary artery buildups when they took the maximum dose of Crestor -- which is the strongest of the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs on the market, though it's come under fire by the consumer group Public Citizen, which contends that the drug has more side effects than its competitors.
It's too soon to tell whether this shrinkage of artery blockages will result in fewer heart attacks.