Cholesterol is a natural and important part of our body. It helps build cells and make hormones. But having too much of it, especially a kind called LDL or “bad cholesterol,” can lead to serious health problems like heart attacks and strokes.
Our bodies use hormones to help keep cholesterol and other substances in balance. When this balance is off, cholesterol levels can become too high and dangerous.
For many years, the most common treatment for high cholesterol has been a group of drugs called statins. Statins lower the amount of cholesterol that the liver makes. They have helped many people lower their risk of heart disease.
But not everyone can take statins. Some people have side effects like pain in their muscles or joints, and for others, statins don’t lower cholesterol enough.
Now, there is a new option that may help. It’s called bempedoic acid. This drug is giving hope to people who cannot take statins or need extra help to bring their cholesterol down. Bempedoic acid works in a different way than statins but can still lower LDL cholesterol.
A recent study funded by Esperion Therapeutics, the company that makes bempedoic acid, showed promising results. The study was called the CLEAR Outcomes Trial and was presented at a major medical meeting in 2023.
It looked at people who could not take statins and found that bempedoic acid lowered their LDL cholesterol by 21%. It also reduced their risk of heart attacks and strokes by 13%.
Even more encouraging, when researchers compared bempedoic acid with statins, they found that the benefits for the heart were similar. This means that although bempedoic acid works differently, it still protects the heart just as well as statins do.
This is very important because heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death around the world. Dr. A. Michael Lincoff, a heart doctor and researcher at the Cleveland Clinic who helped lead the study, said that bempedoic acid is a good new choice for people who need help with high cholesterol.
It also shows that not all treatments need to work the same way to be helpful. For example, in diabetes treatment, some drugs lower blood sugar but don’t always protect the heart. But in this case, both statins and bempedoic acid lower cholesterol and protect the heart.
Bempedoic acid could be a big step forward in the fight against heart disease. It gives doctors another safe and effective tool to help patients. This means more people might be able to manage their cholesterol better and avoid serious health problems in the future.
As scientists continue to find new treatments, medicines like bempedoic acid give us more hope for a healthier future. With more options, we can better protect people from heart disease and save more lives.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies that apple juice could benefit your heart health, and results showing yogurt may help lower the death risks in heart disease.
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