New guidelines would cut cholesterol.The number of people in the United States taking cholesterol-lowering drugs will nearly triple in coming years to roughly 36 million if physicians adhere to new guidelines issued by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI NHLBI, n.pr See National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. ) in Bethesda, Md. Also, the number of people instructed to consume a low-cholesterol diet would rise from 52 million to 65 million. The guidelines, summarized in the May 16 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. , call for more aggressive treatment of the people at greatest risk of heart disease. Specifically, people with low-density lipoprotein low-density lipoprotein n. Abbr. LDL A lipoprotein that contains relatively high amounts of cholesterol and is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. of 130 milligrams per deciliter deciliter /dec·i·li·ter/ (dL) (des´i-le?ter) one tenth (10minus;1) of a liter; 100 milliliters. Deciliter (dL) 100 cubic centimeters (cc). Mentioned in: Hypercholesterolemia of blood or higher would get cholesterol-lowering drugs. Doing so, says NHLBI Director Claude Lenfant, can reduce short-term risk of heart disease by 40 percent and cut long-term risk by even more. |
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