US Doctors Urge Wider Use Of Cholesterol Drugs

[Divernan]

18. Patents are expiring; so Big Pharma/Med dramatically jacks up the numbers of prescriptions!

Quelle coinky-dink!

The patents on Lipitor, Zocor and other statins have expired, and they are widely available in generic versions for as little as a dime a day. One that is still under patent protection is AstraZeneca's Crestor, which had sales of $8.3 billion in 2012.

Under the new advice, 33 million Americans - 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women - would meet the threshold to consider taking a statin. Under the current guidelines, statins are recommended for only about 15 percent of adults.

The government's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute appointed expert panels to write the new guidelines in 2008, but in June said it would leave drafting them to the Heart Association and College of Cardiology. New guidelines on lifestyle and obesity also came out Tuesday, and ones on blood pressure are coming soon.

Roughly half the cholesterol panel members have financial ties to makers of heart drugs, but panel leaders said no one with industry connections could vote on the recommendations. "It is practically impossible to find a large group of outside experts in the field who have no relationships to industry," said Dr. George Mensah of the heart institute.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_HEART_DISEASE_NEW_GUIDELINES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-12-16-08-43

My family doc has long refused to prescribe statins. I was on other cholesterol meds for a couple of years, but lost 50 lbs., over a 2 year period and have been off cholesterol meds for 3 years now.

All drugs carry some risk, but I'll continue to go with one daily uncoated 81 mg. baby aspirin to prevent stroke, and let the heart docs take their own statins.