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A new study found that a one-two punch of cholesterol-lowering drugs could significantly reduce the risk of a stroke and heart attack, the New York Post reports.
Maciej Banach, a professor of cardiology at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, is now suggesting taking statins, which reduce cholesterol levels, are commonly prescribed to patients facing a high risk of heart attack or stroke, with the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe, rather than by itself. The combination is reported to reduce the risk of early death by 19%, as well as a major cardiovascular event by 18% and a stroke by 17%, according to a recent study authored by Banach.
“The combination therapy is safe and efficacious,” he said via the New York Post.
Banach's findings were published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings and challenge the idea that a high-dose statin should be monitored for at least two months prior to a patient also being prescribed ezetimibe. Banach's team began recommending the drugs be taken together after analyzing 14 studies involving more than 108,000 patients reported to have experienced blocked arteries.
“This study confirms that combined cholesterol-lowering therapy should be considered immediately and should be the gold standard for treatment of very high-risk patients,” said co-author Peter Toth. “Simply adding ezetimibe to statin therapy, without waiting for at least two months to see the effects of statin monotherapy, which is suboptimal in many patients,” Toth continued, “is associated with more effective LDL [cholesterol] goal achievement and is responsible for significant incremental reductions in cardiovascular health problems and deaths.”
Cardiovascular disease, which is linked to high blood pressure, cigarette use, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes and high cholesterol, is estimated to kill about 20 million people annually, with nearly 94 million Americans ages 20 and up considered borderline high cholesterol.