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Covid-19 patients with a history of cardiovascular disease are at an increased risk of developing severe illness and could benefit most from the Covid-19 treatment Paxlovid – but there’s a catch. Paxlovid can have dangerous interactions with some of the most common medications for cardiovascular disease, including certain statins and heart failure therapies, a new paper warns. The review paper, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, lists dozens of cardiovascular medications and whether they are safe to give along with Paxlovid or whether they could have interactions. Some medications such as aspirin are safe to...

WASHINGTON — Cardiologists not associated with the White House said Wednesday that President Trump’s physical exam revealed serious heart concerns, including very high levels of so-called bad cholesterol, which raises the risk that Mr. Trump could suffer a heart attack while in office. Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a rear admiral and the White House physician, said Tuesday in his report on the president’s medical condition that Mr. Trump was in “excellent” cardiac health despite having an LDL cholesterol level of 143, well above the desired level of 100 or less. Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Research Institute,...

The risk of developing type 2 diabetes rises with increasing doses of statin therapy, according to the findings of a large meta-analysis in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA. "Our findings suggest that clinicians should be vigilant for the development of diabetes in patients receiving intensive statin therapy," said Dr. David Preiss of the BHF Glasgow (Scotland) Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, and his associates. Several recent studies have suggested that statin therapy may raise the risk of diabetes, and some have indicated that the risk is higher at higher doses of the drugs. Dr. Preiss and...

New data from the JUPITER study demonstrated that CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium) 20 mg significantly reduced major cardiovascular (CV) events (defined in this study as the combined risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, arterial revascularization, hospitalization for unstable angina, or death from CV causes) by a dramatic 44% compared to placebo (p<0.001) among men and women with elevated hsCRP but low to normal cholesterol levels. Results also showed that for patients in the trial taking rosuvastatin: the combined risk of heart attack, stroke or CV death was reduced by nearly half (47%, p<0.001). risk of heart attack was cut by more than...

MUNICH, GERMANY (AP) - Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday. Chronic heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently around the body.

AP MEDICAL WRITER ATLANTA -- People in a new study got their "bad cholesterol" to the lowest levels ever seen and saw blockages in their blood vessels shrink by taking a high dose of cholesterol drug, researchers reported Monday. Doctors say it is the best evidence yet that heart disease actually can be reversed, not just kept from getting worse. Two-thirds of the 349 study participants had regression of heart artery buildups when they took the maximum dose of Crestor, the strongest of the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs on the market and one under fire by a consumer group that contends...

A March 3 article about a Food and Drug Administration public health advisory on the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor misstated agency and company recommendations on starting dosages for the drug. The usual starting dose is 10 milligrams, and doctors should consider 5 milligrams for patients requiring less aggressive treatment.

FDA Issues Warning on Use of Cholesterol Drug, Especially by Asians The popular new cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor may cause an increased risk of potentially life-threatening muscle damage, especially in people of Asian ancestry, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. In a formal advisory, the agency said the risk is small and was largely identified and understood when the drug was approved in 2003. But because of new post-market studies that underscored the concerns, the agency concluded that the public should be informed and that warnings on the product label should be strengthened. The advisory, and accompanying new instructions to...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - AstraZeneca's recent full-page newspaper advertisements defending the safety of its cholesterol-lowering pill, Crestor, are "false and misleading," in part because serious concerns remain about the safety of the drug, federal drug regulators said Wednesday. The advertisements stated that "the F.D.A. has confidence in the safety and efficacy of Crestor" and that the agency "as recently as last Friday publicly confirmed that Crestor is safe and effective." Neither is true, said a letter from the Food and Drug Administration to AstraZeneca. In fact, days before the advertisements ran, top agency officials were widely quoted expressing concerns about...

FDA 'Incapable' of Protecting Public, Federal Reviewer Says The Associated Press The American public is "virtually defenseless" if another medication such as Vioxx proves to be unsafe after it is approved for sale, a government drug safety reviewer told a congressional committee Thursday. "I would argue that the FDA as currently configured is incapable of protecting America against another Vioxx," said David Graham, who warned that the arthritis drug had been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. He told the Senate Finance Committee that there were at least five other drugs on the market today that...

Group Calls Drug Unsafe Since it came on the market last year, the drug Crestor has quickly helped millions of people with high cholesterol get their blood lipids down to healthier levels. It is the most powerful statin drug on the market, and many doctors and patients have warmly embraced it. Not so the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which has waged a campaign to have Crestor taken off the market. In a citizen's petition to the Food and Drug Administration, the group said 29 cases of kidney failure or insufficiency that may have been related to Crestor have been...