Join the 'High Cholesterol - Familial Homozygous' group to help and get support from people like you. How it works

High Cholesterol - Familial Homozygous Blog

Related terms: Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Homozygous, Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Homozygous FH, Hypercholesterolemia, Familial Homozygous

Overview Questions & Answers (7)

Blog (7)

Group Members (4) RSS

Cholesterol Levels Vary Widely by Country: Study

Posted 9 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 9 – People's average cholesterol levels seem to rise and fall along with their countries' economies and ease of access to quality health care, according to a new study. Researchers examined data from thousands of patients with a history of high cholesterol (more than 200 milligrams per deciliter) in 36 countries, including the United States. The analysis revealed that countries with higher overall income levels, lower out-of-pocket health care costs, and high-performing and efficient health systems tend to have lower rates of high cholesterol among people who'd had a history of high cholesterol. For patients with no history of high cholesterol, there was no association between a country's economy and health care system and the risk of high cholesterol. Among the specific findings: Rates of total high cholesterol varied widely, ranging from 73 percent in Bulgaria to 24 ... Read more

Cholesterol Drug Shows Promise in Early Research

Posted 15 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 15 – Preliminary trials indicate that a new drug designed to simultaneously boost good cholesterol while lowering bad cholesterol shows considerable promise, both on its own and in combination with standard statin medications. The drug evacetrapib is part of a class of so-called "cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors." Evacetrapib is the second CETP medication to undergo testing as a means to lower "bad" low-density lipoprotein cholesterol while raising "good" high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Testing of the first drug in this class – Pfizer's torcetrapib – ended badly. A 15,000-person trial of torcetrapib conducted several years ago revealed that the medication (administered in combination with the statin Lipitor) was associated with an elevated risk for cardiovascular complications and even death. In that case, the trial was halted mid-stream and ... Read more

For Cholesterol Control, Experts Urge More Than Meds

Posted 29 Dec 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Dec. 28 – Advances in medical science have made it easier than ever to lower dangerous cholesterol levels. A class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have proven particularly effective, reducing the risk for heart-related death by as much as 40 percent in people who have already suffered a heart attack, said Dr. Vincent Bufalino, president and chief executive of Midwest Heart Specialists and a spokesman for the American Heart Association. "People have said we need them in the drinking water because they are just so effective in lowering cholesterol," Bufalino said. But he and other doctors warn that when it comes to controlling cholesterol and enjoying overall health, nothing beats lifestyle changes, such as a heart-friendly diet and regular exercise. "Once we became a fast-food generation, it's just too easy to order it at the first window, pick it up at the ... Read more

Hope for Inherited, Dangerously High Cholesterol

Posted 15 Mar 2010 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, March 14 – A new drug called mipomersen reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) "bad" cholesterol by nearly 25 percent when added to current therapy in people with a rare genetic condition that causes extremely high cholesterol, a new study finds. Mipomersen is designed to decrease the formation of apolipoprotein B (the main structural protein in LDL cholesterol) and its release from the liver or intestine. This reduces circulating LDL cholesterol concentrations. Inherited high cholesterol (homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia) affects one in every one million people. Patients with the disorder have severely elevated LDL cholesterol and a high risk of early cardiovascular disease. If untreated, these patients rarely live past the age of 30. This phase 3 clinical trial included 51 patients with homozygous FH who were already taking lipid-lowering drugs, including high-dose ... Read more

Related support groups: High Cholesterol, High Cholesterol - Familial Homozygous

Global Efforts to Lower 'Bad' Cholesterol Working

Posted 22 Jun 2009 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, June 22 – People in the United States and around the world who are trying to lower their "bad" cholesterol have been succeeding more often in the past decade, new research suggests. The look at almost 10,000 patients from nine countries found that, overall, 73 percent had reached their target level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) – nearly double the number since the survey was first conducted in 1996-1997. Three-quarters of those surveyed were on a statin drug to lower cholesterol (for an average duration of about two years), while others either used different medications or made only lifestyle changes, such as improved exercise and nutrition regimens, to try to bring down their LDL levels, the researchers found. In the United States, patients of all levels of risk for coronary heart disease showed improvement from their initial 38 percent success rate in 1996-1997. Of those ... Read more

Health Tip: What's Behind High Cholesterol?

Posted 1 Apr 2009 by Drugs.com

-- High cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease. If your numbers are rising, there are a few possible reasons. The U.S. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute lists these factors that can affect blood cholesterol: A diet high in saturated fat or cholesterol-rich foods. Being overweight. Not getting enough exercise. Getting older, and being a postmenopausal female. A family history of high cholesterol. Read more

Lowest Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Levels the Best

Posted 23 Mar 2009 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 23 – The tightest control of the major risk factors for heart disease seems to provide the greatest protection against cardiovascular trouble, a new study shows. And so the current guidelines for risk factors such as blood pressure and LDL cholesterol might need to be tightened even further, said Dr. Stephen J. Nicholls, an assistant professor of molecular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, and author of the report, which appears in the March 31 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "It is clear that each benefit we have in terms of lowering LDL cholesterol and blood pressure is going to be important, and the lower you get those measurements, the better," Nicholls said. Nicholls and his colleagues looked at data on the arteries of 3,437 men enrolled in seven different trials at the Cleveland Clinic. The arteries were examined by ultrasound probes that ... Read more

FDA Medwatch Alert: Cholestrix

Posted 9 Aug 2007 by Drugs.com

[Posted August 09, 2007] FDA warns consumers and healthcare professionals to avoid using Red Yeast Rice and Red Yeast Rice/Policosonal Complex, sold by Swanson Healthcare Products, Inc. and manufactured by Nature’s Value Inc. and Kabco Inc., respectively; and Cholestrix, sold by Sunburst Biorganics because the products may contain an unauthorized drug that could be harmful to their health. The products, promoted and sold over the internet as treatments for high cholesterol, contain lovastatin, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Mevacor, a prescription drug approved for high cholesterol. Lovastatin can cause severe muscle problems leading to kidney impairment. The risk is greater in patients who take higher doses of lovastatin or who take lovastatin and other medicines that increase the risk of muscle adverse reactions such as nefazodone (an antidepressant), certain ... Read more

Ask a Question

Further Information

Related Condition Support Groups

High Cholesterol

Related Drug Support Groups

simvastatin, Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, Vytorin, atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, Choloxin, Juvisync, simvastatin/sitagliptin, dextrothyroxine sodium, ezetimibe/simvastatin