Connection Between ED and Heart Disease and BP

Connection Between ED and Heart Disease and BP

Health Tip: Keep Cholesterol Under Control

(HealthDay News) -- Too much dietary cholesterol can lead to high cholesterol levels in the blood, which can be a risk factor for heart disease.

The Cleveland Clinic offers these suggestions to help lower your cholesterol:

• Avoid high-fat or fried foods.
• When you do eat foods with fat, look for foods with unsaturated, not saturated, fat.
• Reduce the amount of red meat that you eat, and eat more fish and poultry.
• Get enough soluble fiber by eating plenty of fruits, beans, peas and oats.
• Don't eat more than three egg yolks per week.
• Get plenty of exercise, maintain a healthy body weight, and stop smoking.

Trial: Popular cholesterol drug fails to improve heart disease

Story Highlights

• Trial: Vytorin failed to improve heart disease though it reduces key risk factors


• Millions of Americans already take the drug or one of its components, Zetia


• Yale University cardiologist: People need to return to statins, like Lipitor


• Zetia, Vytorin have racked up $5 billion in sales despite limited proof of benefit

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Leading doctors urged a return to older, tried-and-true treatments for high cholesterol after hearing full results Sunday of a failed trial of Vytorin.

Millions of Americans already take the drug or one of its components, Zetia. But doctors were stunned to learn that Vytorin failed to improve heart disease even though it worked as intended to reduce three key risk factors.

"People need to turn back to statins," said Yale University cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz, referring to Lipitor, Crestor and other widely used brands. "We know that statins are good drugs. We know that they reduce risks."

The study was closely watched because Zetia and Vytorin have racked up $5 billion in sales despite limited proof of benefit. Two Congressional panels launched probes into why it took drugmakers nearly two years after the study's completion to release results.

Results were presented at an American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago Sunday and published on the Internet by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors have long focused on lowering LDL or bad cholesterol as a way to prevent heart disease. Statins like Merck & Co.'s Zocor, which recently came out in generic form, do this, as do niacin, fibrates and other medicines.

Vytorin, which came out in 2004, combines Zocor with Schering-Plough Corp.'s Zetia, which went on sale in 2002 and attacks cholesterol in a different way. Read the full story>>

Heart Risk Can Be Predicted Without Lab Tests

(HealthDay News) -- When it comes to predicting a person's cardiovascular disease risk, cheap, simple and noninvasive methods can be as effective as lab tests, a new study finds.

The U.S. researchers noted these non-lab methods could be especially useful where lab testing is inconvenient or unavailable, such as in developing countries.

Worldwide, about 80 percent of cardiovascular deaths occur in developing nations, Dr. Thomas Gaziano, of the division of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a prepared statement.

The team analyzed data on 6,186 people who were aged 25 to 74 when they were first examined between 1971-75 for the NHANES I study. At the time, these participants did not report any history of cardiovascular disease -- such as heart attack, heart failure, stroke or angina -- or cancer.

Over a 21-year period, people in this group had 1,529 first-time cardiovascular events, including 578 deaths due to cardiovascular disease.

The researchers compared the lab-based method and the non-lab method in calculating a number called the c-statistic to assess cardiovascular risk prediction. The lab method included age, systolic blood pressure, smoking status, total cholesterol, diabetes status, and current treatment for high blood pressure. The non-lab method substituted body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) for cholesterol.

The lab and non-lab method gave similar c-statistics, but the non-lab method can provide risk factor information non-invasively and much faster -- just five to 10 minutes, the study authors said. They added that a cholesterol test is too costly for many people in developing countries.

The study was published in the March 15 issue of The Lancet.

"Although this method requires further validation and calibration, use of a simple non-laboratory approach, as suggested by WHO [World Health Organization], could have profound effects on the affordability and availability of an adequate screening program in developing countries," the study authors wrote. "Initial screening without blood testing could lead to the quick initiation of treatment without the added cost or inconvenience of laboratory testing, and would also keep any potential loss to follow-up due to the extra step in testing to a minimum."

However, an accompanying editorial in the journal suggested this approach may not be appropriate for people in developing countries.

"Although tools that use non-laboratory-based variables can help to improve affordability of screening programs for non-communicable diseases, they should not compromise the safety of patients. For equitable care of cardiovascular disease and other major non-communicable diseases, universal access to a set of essential interventions, including laboratory assays, may be required, even in settings with limited resources," wrote Dr. Shanthi Mendis, of the WHO in Geneva, and Dr. V. Mohan, of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in India.

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about heart disease risk factors.