They study medicine to reverse the bad cholesterol

• April 24, 2024

Apparently people who can not control their cholesterol with diet Y exercise , they can do it through medications.

In accordance with The New England Journal of Medicine, the medicine ancetrapib It seems that simultaneously increasing the level of HDL sometimes called good cholesterol and reduces the level of LDL, or bad cholesterol .

The study was sponsored by Merck, manufacturer of the drug. The results will be published this Wednesday, November 24 during a meeting of the American Heart Association in Chicago.

The clinical test called DEFINE studied 1,623 patients with coronary heart disease of the heart or with high risk of it.

They all took statins to decrease their LDL cholesterol . Half of them also received ancetrapib, while the other half took a placebo.

In 24 weeks the patients who received ancetrapib had a decrease in their LDL levels of almost 40% compared to the placebo group, while their levels HDL They increased 138%. There were no significant side effects.

If the same benefit was seen in all patients at risk of heart disease , something still far away, would result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and heart attacks less in a period of five years, according to Dr. Christopher Cannon, the lead author of the study and cardiologist in Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"It's an amazing result," said the doctor Robet Eckel from the University of Colorado, former president of the American Heart Association: "It's as if a rocket landed on Jupiter, instead of the moon."

However, Eckel warned that it is too early to say whether the ancetrapib It can really prevent long-term illnesses.

Dr. PK Shah, cardiologist of the Cedars-Sinai Institute of the Heart, said he is encouraged by the results of DEFINE , but that some of the details make you think:

"It seems to be safe and does not raise the blood pressure , but it is not that it is a resounding success. Despite improving the levels of cholesterol , patients had less inflammation in their blood vessels. The inflammation it's a sign of cholesterol damage, "Shah said.