How Low Should Cholesterol Go?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New guidelines from the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program call for people considered at high risk for heart disease to lower their LDL, or "bad," cholesterol levels to less than 1.81 millimoles per liter of blood.

That's considerably lower than the traditional standard calling for levels of 2.56 millimoles per liter and would require substantially higher doses of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.

Good idea? Not according to European researchers. They believe the increase in statin dose required to reach these low cholesterol levels -- more than eight-times higher than doses used today -- would result in significantly more adverse side effects from the drugs and might even outweigh any benefits seen in lower heart disease risks.

It would also mean that significantly more people would fall into the high risk category, resulting in far more people on the medications.

Taking statins may raise the risk of heart failure, muscle problems, mental and neurological symptoms, and cancer.

Researchers emphasize clinical studies have not linked higher doses of statins to lower overall mortality rates, further questioning whether increasing the doses of these medications and giving them to many more people is a wise idea.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: BMJ, 2006;352:1330-1332