Latest Good News on Evacetrapib

November 18th, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

written by Michael O’Leary

If you have type 2 diabetes, you probably also battle cardiovascular disease often with statin drugs to lower your cholesterol. The American College of Physicians recommends that all people with diabetes and any other risk factor for cardiovascular disease should be taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Another promising new drug is undergoing testing that appears to boost good HDL cholesterol while lowering bad LDL cholesterol, and so far, without causing adverse effects on blood pressure that have stymied similar drugs. The latest clinical trial results of evacetrapib were highlighted in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Co-author Dr. Steven Nissen, of the Cleveland Clinic said these early results clear the way for larger studies. (Link to published site)

Does Raising Your HDL Cholesterol Really Help?

October 26th, 2011  

written by Michael O'Leary

Dr. Gregory Nichols

Type 2 diabetics know they have a significantly higher risk for coronary artery disease that can lead to heart attacks and hospitalization. There has been tremendous progress in heading off these heart attacks using LDL cholesterol-lowering medications. The evidence is growing, however, that raising HDL cholesterol may double the benefits in both lowering LDL cholesterol and reducing hospitalizations due to cardiovascular disease.

That’s the finding of a large study conducted by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. as reported by MedPage Today. The researchers found that for every increase of 5 milligrams of HDL cholesterol per deciliter (mg/dL) of blood there was a 6 percent reduction in hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease. (Link to published site)