An FDA panel ruled yesterday that the cholesterol pill Crestor can prevent heart attack, stroke, and death even among people with healthy cholesterol levels, since it also lowers levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of inflammation that can lead to clogged arteries.
ACSH's Jeff Stier writes on our FactsAndFears blog that "thinking of medication as something only for the sick may be a mistake. And many people who are 'not yet sick' have heart attacks. So perhaps the prudent thing to do, given the growing evidence of Crestor's efficacy and its long record of safety, is to put older women (and perhaps men) who have elevated CRP on the drug while more studies are done. Indeed, it may be risky not to."
"The notion of CRP as a risk factor for heart disease is pretty new, but we've been putting healthy people on drugs to prevent disease for many years now," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "Chemoprevention of breast cancer is a good example. In this case, the risk of heart disease is substantial, and, unfortunately, the first manifestation of that risk oftentimes is sudden death. And statins like Crestor are a very safe class of drugs."