Take Your Statin to Prevent Heart Disease
Written by: LowT Center Clinical Team
Medically reviewed by: Michael Seay, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC
Posted: May 17, 2019
Updated: Apr 26, 2023
LDL cholesterol obviously is a critical factor in arterial atherosclerosis leading to heart attacks and strokes, but this large genetic study from the US VA system and the UK Biobank identified over 26,000 individuals with venous thromboembolic disease (DVT – Deep Vein Thrombosis) and/Or PE (Pulmonary Embolism)) and demonstrated a link between LDL levels and the risk of VTE.
What the article doesn’t mention, however, are the results from the Jupiter Trial from 2008 with nearly 18,000 randomized individuals without known CVD and with LDL levels below 130 looked at this prospectively as a secondary endpoint and showed that rosuvastatin (Crestor™️) 20mg daily, not only lowered CV events (MI, stroke, revascularization) by 44% over two years (it was designed to go to five years, but they had to stop the trial three years early because it was felt to be unethical to continue it!), but also showed a reduction of 43% in VTE in patients treated with rosuvastatin versus placebo!
The bottom line – take your statin to prevent heart disease, but it may also significantly reduce the risk of potentially fatal venous events as well! There are about 100,000 PEs/year in the US and in about half of these, the first symptom is death!
John
John A. Osborne, MD, PhD, FACC
LowT Center/HerKare/State of the Heart Cardiology
Micheal Seay, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC
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