Cholesterol-lowering drugs: return to the controversy
Cholesterol: beware of fat in the diet
Everyone knows that eating too much fat is bad for your health. If certain fats are essential for the proper functioning of the body, too high a level of lipids in the blood is an important cardiovascular risk factor, as is high blood pressure, smoking, obesity or diabetes.
We speak of “dyslipidemia” when one or more of the blood lipids is present in too high an amount.
Among these lipids, we distinguish more precisely:
- Total cholesterol
- HDL-cholesterol, or “good” cholesterol
- LDL-cholesterol, or “bad” cholesterol
- Triglycerides
It is known that a high level of LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, associated with a low level of HDL, contributes to the development of cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death in developed countries, along with cancer.
Good to know: Worldwide, the WHO considers that 30% of deaths linked to non-communicable diseases are due to cardiovascular disorders (stroke, heart attack, etc.), which places them before cancers (13%), pulmonary (7%) and diabetes (2%). |
It therefore seems essential to limit risk factors such as cholesterol to prevent coronary heart disease. This is where cholesterol lowering drugs, including statins, come in. But are they really essential for everyone?