Posted on 10/30/2007 8:07:22 AM PDT by 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."....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Definitely look into Tricor™.
Not saying Tricor or other fibrates are superior to statins, just an alternative.
That’s one of the reasons...
It actually happened, but the whole story is that he found what he called other “risk factors”, even though I’m not overweight, exercise daily, and have no family history of heart problems.
He’s asked to get off the Crestor but she said the only alternative was some kind of sandlike stuff that you have to mix with water & drink. She seemed to be discouraging him from trying that because she told him she could guarantee he wouldn’t like it.
Never heard of Tricor. I’ll look into that. Thanks.
The sandlike stuff is from the same drug family as Tricor but in a different form.
Who to believe?
Worry, I was wrong about the drug family. Questran is a Bile Acid Sequestrant.
My post #68 corrects #66.
here is info on statins that may shock some folks - the side effects can be life threatening...... I refuse to take any of this posion.
Astronauts can wear tinfoil, too.
Along with diapers.
I’ve been on an 80mg daily dose of Lipitor for the last three months. That, and a drastic change to my diet has cut my LDL cholesteral numbers down from 120 to 51, and I’ve had no side effects (other than the drain on my HSA account).
My husband cannot take statins and has found he cannot tolerate zetia either. We're also looking for alternatives. Thanks!
Tricor is not as effective as statins but much better than nothing. An older drug in the same family, gemfibrozil, actually worked pretty well on my wife.
Lipitor is the number one prescribed drug in the world.
have they told you to check your liver yet? it can and does destroy livers and is also a neurotoxin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.