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American Morning
'Paging Dr. Gupta'
Aired February 18, 2004 - 08:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Statins are a popular drug designed to lower cholesterol, and a new study says that you don't need a high cholesterol count to benefit from statin medications, though.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center this morning with the details on this study.
Hey, Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
There are some cardiologists out there who say statins may by in the drinking water one day. It's that good a medication, and has so many different benefits. Certainly a lot of people know about it for its cholesterol-lowering benefits, but it's becoming one of the most popular drugs around the world. About 16 million people in the United States alone take this medication.
Now a new study specifically looking at heart failure and determining whether or not statins have a role and benefit there as well. Heart failure, as many people know, basically when the heart fails for all sorts of reasons. It could because of a previous heart attack. It could be because of coronary artery disease. It could be for a lot of different reasons. But not always because someone also has a high cholesterol.
So the question was statins, a typical cholesterol-lowering medication, might have had the benefit in those heart failure patients as well. That was the subject of a study. They looked at 550 patients with heart failure, and who are on conventional therapy to try and treat the heart failure. They also added statin medications. What they found was that those patients had an overall 55 percent lower risk of death.
An important point now, all heart failure patients benefited independent of what their cholesterol level types were, what the type of heart failure was, all those sorts of things, all those patients benefiting from statin medications, if they were on the other medications.
Soledad, you and I have talked about statins quite a bit. It is a very good drug for lowering cholesterol levels and appears to maybe have some other benefits now as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: So what's the theory that you would be able to use the statins in combination with other drugs at the same time, that you're treating heart failure? And do you think that's going to happen? GUPTA: I think it probably will happen. About a third of doctors, about a third of patients already get statin medications as part of their heart failure treatments, because doctors sort of had a notion that it probably had some benefit. Now they may have some evidence.
There are some conventional therapies for heart failure -- fluid and salt restriction, diuretics, beta-blockers, ace inhibitors.
But the thought is that if you add a statin medication, you may get some additional benefits to heart failure patients. You may reduce inflammation. You may block dilation of the heart as well, indirectly regulating adrenaline, which is the stress hormone. So all these may also benefit from these statin medications, and subsequently, heart failure patients may have a longer life and a better outcome -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Do they think that everybody could benefit from statins. I have met doctors who said, you know what, they should just put that stuff in the water, it's that good.
GUPTA: That's right. Cardiologists are saying that. You know, it's one of those things where I think we're on this medication. Everyone is always hesitant to use the term wonder drug, but it appears to be such a good drug. Some of the cardiologist, some of the doctors who really study this, say up to 100 million patients in the United States alone could benefit from this. Who are those patients? Heart failure patients, diabetics, hypertensives, coronary artery disease patients, patients who don't have coronary artery disease, but have a blood vessel disease in their hearts for other reasons, lots of patients fall into those categories.
But, Soledad, like with anything good, I think it's important to mention potential side effects as well. The common ones, fatigue, upset stomach, abdominal cramps. If you take the medication, you may get some of those. Rarer, and what concerns people a little bit more are the hits that you can take to your liver, and muscle and nerve irritation as well. So there as some side effects, as with any medication, but it appears to be a pretty good drug, and maybe even beneficial for heart patients as well now -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 18, 2004 - 08:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Statins are a popular drug designed to lower cholesterol, and a new study says that you don't need a high cholesterol count to benefit from statin medications, though.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center this morning with the details on this study.
Hey, Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
There are some cardiologists out there who say statins may by in the drinking water one day. It's that good a medication, and has so many different benefits. Certainly a lot of people know about it for its cholesterol-lowering benefits, but it's becoming one of the most popular drugs around the world. About 16 million people in the United States alone take this medication.
Now a new study specifically looking at heart failure and determining whether or not statins have a role and benefit there as well. Heart failure, as many people know, basically when the heart fails for all sorts of reasons. It could because of a previous heart attack. It could be because of coronary artery disease. It could be for a lot of different reasons. But not always because someone also has a high cholesterol.
So the question was statins, a typical cholesterol-lowering medication, might have had the benefit in those heart failure patients as well. That was the subject of a study. They looked at 550 patients with heart failure, and who are on conventional therapy to try and treat the heart failure. They also added statin medications. What they found was that those patients had an overall 55 percent lower risk of death.
An important point now, all heart failure patients benefited independent of what their cholesterol level types were, what the type of heart failure was, all those sorts of things, all those patients benefiting from statin medications, if they were on the other medications.
Soledad, you and I have talked about statins quite a bit. It is a very good drug for lowering cholesterol levels and appears to maybe have some other benefits now as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: So what's the theory that you would be able to use the statins in combination with other drugs at the same time, that you're treating heart failure? And do you think that's going to happen? GUPTA: I think it probably will happen. About a third of doctors, about a third of patients already get statin medications as part of their heart failure treatments, because doctors sort of had a notion that it probably had some benefit. Now they may have some evidence.
There are some conventional therapies for heart failure -- fluid and salt restriction, diuretics, beta-blockers, ace inhibitors.
But the thought is that if you add a statin medication, you may get some additional benefits to heart failure patients. You may reduce inflammation. You may block dilation of the heart as well, indirectly regulating adrenaline, which is the stress hormone. So all these may also benefit from these statin medications, and subsequently, heart failure patients may have a longer life and a better outcome -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Do they think that everybody could benefit from statins. I have met doctors who said, you know what, they should just put that stuff in the water, it's that good.
GUPTA: That's right. Cardiologists are saying that. You know, it's one of those things where I think we're on this medication. Everyone is always hesitant to use the term wonder drug, but it appears to be such a good drug. Some of the cardiologist, some of the doctors who really study this, say up to 100 million patients in the United States alone could benefit from this. Who are those patients? Heart failure patients, diabetics, hypertensives, coronary artery disease patients, patients who don't have coronary artery disease, but have a blood vessel disease in their hearts for other reasons, lots of patients fall into those categories.
But, Soledad, like with anything good, I think it's important to mention potential side effects as well. The common ones, fatigue, upset stomach, abdominal cramps. If you take the medication, you may get some of those. Rarer, and what concerns people a little bit more are the hits that you can take to your liver, and muscle and nerve irritation as well. So there as some side effects, as with any medication, but it appears to be a pretty good drug, and maybe even beneficial for heart patients as well now -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
