Washington, DC—The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have issued new clinical practice guidelines regarding the treatment of blood cholesterol. The guidelines identify four major groups of patients for whom statins have the greatest chance of preventing stroke and heart attacks, including those with, or at a high risk of developing, cardiovascular disease; diabetic persons between 40 and 75 years of age; and patients with high LDL cholesterol levels. This represents a departure from previous guidelines because it emphasizes the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle over focusing only on specific cholesterol targets. These recommendations could potentially double the number of patients who are candidates for long-term statin therapy, from 15 to 30 million.
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