The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recently (November, 2013) introduced new guidelines for the use of statins to prevent heart attacks and other cardiovascular complications. An analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine assessed the impact of these recommendations.
The researchers found that roughly 13 million additional Americans would be candidates for a statin prescription if their doctors follow the guidelines closely. Most of these people are over 60 years old; in fact, according to the researchers who did the analysis, about half the population between 40 and 75 would end up taking a statin-type cholesterol-lowering drug.
Most of these people are currently healthy and would be taking the drug to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease. This indication for statins remains controversial, especially since there are few randomized controlled trials testing these drugs in senior citizens.
