7. Cholesterol Drugs: New Questions

A medical mystery emerged at the beginning of 2008: Why did a drug that lowers cholesterol fail to reduce plaque in the arteries?

The FDA has approved drugs based on their ability to lower cholesterol -- but only because this is supposed to cut the risk of clogged arteries and heart disease. But Vytorin, a combination of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Zocor and the cholesterol-blocking drug Zetia, didn't seem to work better than Zocor alone.

As the year went on, cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins (such as Zocor) looked better and better. Researchers dispelled fears they might raise cancer risk. And they found that statins cut the risk of heart disease in half for people with normal cholesterol levels but high levels of C-reactive protein in the blood.

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