More young adults on cholesterol drugs

AP via Yahoo ^ | 10/30/07 | Linda A. Johnson

[qam1]

Use of cholesterol and blood pressure medicines by young adults appears to be rising rapidly — at a faster pace than among senior citizens, according to an industry report being released Tuesday.

Experts point to higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol problems among young people. Also, doctors are getting more aggressive with preventive treatments.

"This is good news, that more people in this age range are taking these medicines," said Dr. Daniel W. Jones, president of the American Heart Association.

Still, he said many more people should be on the drugs that lower cholesterol or blood pressure and which have been shown to reduce risks for heart attack and stroke.

The new data, from prescription benefit manager Medco Health Solutions Inc., indicate use of cholesterol-lowering drugs among people aged 20 to 44, while still low, jumped 68 percent over a six-year period.

The rate rose from 2.5 percent in 2001 to just over 4 percent in 2006 among Medco customers. That means roughly 4.2 million Americans in that age group are now taking cholesterol medicines.

Meanwhile, use of blood pressure medicines increased 21 percent, from about 7 percent of 20- to 44-year-olds in 2001 to over 8 percent in 2006. That translates into about 8.5 million Americans in that age group taking drugs to lower their blood pressure.

"It was a surprise to us," said Dr. Robert Epstein, chief medical officer at Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Medco. "Maybe the fact that we're seeing more young people with high cholesterol and blood pressure is indicative of the epidemic of obesity and overweight that we're seeing in this country."....

[RSmithOpt]

Yup, and eating a balanced diet with daily exercise and exposing one’s self to work in the cold and the heat will do more to control (reduce) blood fat than any pharmco ‘magic pill’.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the link. Interesting.

[NRA1995]

Thinking of Burgess Meredith in “Grumpier Old Men”: “I’m 95 years old and you bring me this sloppin’ foam (light beer)? Every day for breakfast I smoke a cigarette and I have a pound of bacon! For lunch I have a bacon sandwich! For a midday snack I have more bacon....a whole damn plate! And I usually drink my dinner! According to all those flab-belly experts, I should’ve took a dirt nap years ago. Yet they keep dyin’, and I’m still here!”

[PGalt]

watch out for Statin Drugs.....they can cause more harm than good.

Thanks for any information. As a user of Simvistatin (only prescription I have ever taken) in the last 90 days, I can be a FReeper case study. I will research more. Thanks again.

[greyfoxx39]

Don’t worry, they can put you on something to treat those side effects.

I totally disagree with that statement. I can't take ANY of the statins and no doctor has ever told me that.

[Arrowhead1952]

My cholesterol was a little elevated, and my GP whipped out his Rx pad to write a Rx for a statin.

Same here, but I used Red Yeast Rice and Lecithin capsules. Back to normal the next test.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

I don’t eat right and I hate exercise and my cholesterol is incredibly low for that matter my health is great. I am over 40, I do not want my junk food taxed nor do I want any do gooder trying to force me into their lifestyle. I am in the healthcare profession by the way and pills are pushed by Dr’s many just pass them out like candy.

[steve86]

Somehow homo sapiens has made it for at least 100,000 years without cholesterol drugs McDonalds and Burger King

[shorty_harris]

My former cardiologist tried to prescribe cholesterol lowering drugs for me even though he’d never tested my cholesterol level. He just ‘thought’ I probably had high cholesterol.

[isrul]

And that’s exactly what many young people are. And doctors would rather drug you than suggest a change in diet and lifestyle. Some will.

[isrul]

Me too. My doc actually told me not to change my diet and just take the pills. I ignored his advice.

[Gorzaloon]

""This is good news, that more people in this age range are taking these medicines," said the president of the American Heart Association,.. and a major stockholder in Merck, by any chance?

Just wondering.

[calex59]

To get your cholesterol down where some doctors want it, you have to take statins. The human body cannot get the cholesterol down that low. I stopped taking the statins because they made me feel like I had the flu all the time. Statins can kill you......why else do they have to check your blood all the time? New reports are coming out showing that cholesterol does not cause heart attacks. Really look into this before taking statins.

I agree, I used to take statins but found out I felt like he** all the time and then I started getting muscle pains which made me stop taking them immediately. This is the sign of a potentially deadly side effect and can, at the least, lead to permanent muscle damage and at its worst can kill you. I got my cholesterol down through a small change in diet and walking regularly(at least 3 times a week, usually every day).

I told my Doctor I was never going to take statins again and he tried to fool me my saying he was going to prescibe a different drug, it was simply a statin under another name and I knew this. I dropped that Doctor and started seeing another one and told the new one up front I wasn't going to take statins.

[GAD]

I hope it doesn’t happen, but you are at more risk for a myocardial infarction than you know.

My advice to you is get your LDL below 100 asap.

Denial is not an effective long term strategy. In fact, it’s deadly re: this subject.

I am speaking from experience.

[Uri’el-2012]

watch out for Statin Drugs.....they can cause more harm than good.

Red Yeast rice with none of the downsides.

Red yeast rice when produced using the 'Went' strain of Monascus purpureus contains significant quantites of the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin which is also known as mevinolin, a naturally-occurring statin. It is sold as an over the counter dietary supplement for controlling cholesterol (See ref.: Medicine Net). There is strong scientific evidence for its effect in lowering blood levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein/LDL ("bad cholesterol"), and triglyceride levels (see below). Because an approved drug is identical to the molecule it is therefore regulated as a drug by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

[Old Professer]

Pay me now or Pay me later.

[Old Professer]

Sarcastic?

[angkor]

Somehow homo sapiens has made it for at least 100,000 years without cholesterol drugs [McDonalds and Burger King] whale and seal blubber, various high-cholesterol animal brains, slabs of rino and elephant fat, heaps of fowl eggs, brazed chunks of solid pig fat, and all topped with mounds of butter.

One needs to escape America and AMA propaganda to see how and what people actually do eat in other societies.

IMO Americans are grossly overdiagnosed and overmedicated, and cholesterol is one of the biggest myths of all. It's an issue in continual medical dispute, was actually said NOT TO BE A PROBLEM a few years ago, then it was made a problem again, and now the allowable numbers have been ratcheted down so low that large percentages of the American population are taking anti-cholesterol medications, which is precisely the point of the article above.

Viewed from afar, America has become a paranoid hypochondriac nation and is prescribed WAYYYYYY too many drugs.

[Tall_Texan]

“We won’t be satisfied until every man woman and child throughout the world is on these important medications.”

[GAD]

I hope you know your LDL level.

I get a feeling you don’t.

Do a little reading and you will find that high LDL is a significant contributor to the 1.5 million heart attacks in the US each year. 500,000 die each year.

If high cholesterol is not a major driver of heart attacks, then what is?

Publish a paper with your studies and you will be rich and famous!!!