The heart of the matter
Large doses of medicines called statins can reduce heart patients’ bad cholesterol, giving them a new lease of life. So, if high-risk patients thrive on extra-low cholesterol, couldn’t everyone else?
Heart disease is the number one killer in America and Europe, claiming about 2.5m lives in 2003. With an ageing population and an obesity epidemic, the battle against the disease is likely to rage for decades. More than a third of Americans and two-thirds of Britons now have cholesterol levels high enough to put them at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. By 2010, heart disease is expected to be the leading cause of death in developing countries as well.
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