A recent study has suggested that it might be possible to target other areas to lower cholesterol. Specifically, rather than aiming to inhibit one of the key proteins once they are in the LDL receptors, the idea is to address the transport mechanism that ensures that the protein reaches the LDL receptors in the first place.

The study, which was published in eLife , follows a string of previous studies that have aimed to see what happens once the so-called SEC24A gene gets de-activated in mice. The current study is particularly intriguing as it takes the research one step further. Specifically, rather than just focusing on deactivating the gene, the researchers also sought to block vesicles from reaching LDL receptors. In order to do so, they isolated the so-called PCSK9 protein, which usually works by destroying the liver cells receptors of LDL (low-density lipoprotein). The key findings indicated that the mice developed normally, but that their plasma cholesterol levels had decreased by 45 per cent. Based on this, the researchers urged that there be trials with humans to establish whether a treatment can be made.

We can certainly understand why the researchers would want this, as there are some patients who are resistant to statins or cannot take them because of medical contraindications who would benefit from an alternative treatment. Perhaps it could even be used as a complement to optimise treatment for patients who are using statins. Alternatively, it could develop into an alternative treatment that patients could have as a result of informed choice.

Although the findings sound promising, we would caution against any overly optimistic conclusions at this stage. It is clear that extensive long-lasting studies with humans need to be carried out. However, the progress from animal study to clinical trial to market is time-consuming, expensive and not always fruitful. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the findings from this study can at the very least prove fruitful to guide further theorising.

In medicine, it is not uncommon to use the same type of medicine for different diseases. In fact, there is an entire line of research dedicated to investigating how to make old treatments suitable for new diseases. One area that has been receiving particular attention recently is the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs for various eye-disorders.

According to a recently published study, there is potential for cholesterol treatment (in the form of eye-drops) to prevent macular degeneration. It is known that high cholesterol has an effect on the immune system, which in turn appears to affect various stages of macular degeneration. Essentially, macular degeneration occurs as a result of light-sensing cells becoming damaged. Following that, it can progress to a more aggressive form where new blood vessels can cause blindness. The former is known as the dry version, whereas the latter is known as the wet version.

In the study, which was published in the journal Cell Metabolism, the researchers investigated the evolution from the dry version to the wet version of macular degeneration. All of their research was conducted on animal models. Their surprising finding indicated that the so-called macrophages played a key role in worsening the condition. Rather than protecting blood cells by eating fatty deposits and returning them to the blood, they became “bloated”. As a result the area would get inflamed, which in turn necessitated the creation of new blood vessels. Given that blood fats cause hardened blood arteries, the researchers urged for future studies to consider whether it is possible to use cholesterol-lowering eye-drops to prevent or reduce the generation of fat around the macula. This news was cautiously welcomed by several charities for visually impaired individuals who maintained that the findings are in their early stages.

We are inclined to agree. Although the consequences of macular degeneration are undesirable, we see little research to date to leap to developing treatments based on a handful of studies. Nevertheless, it has opened up a pathway worth investigating and we do hope that it proves fruitful.

A new treatment to lower so-called bad cholesterol is currently being developed in the US and promising findings were recently reported at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2012. The treatment, which is currently called AMG-146, works by helping the body to use up bad cholesterol faster than it normally does. The aim is to have it used in combination with statins, which work by slowing the production of bad cholesterol.

The latest trial, which was published in The Lancet, was a double-blind dose-ranging trial that included a total of 631 individuals between the ages of 18-80. In order to be included, the participants had to have a reported history of high cholesterol while taking a single dose of statins. In total there were six different dosages and six placebos that the participant could be given during a three month period. The treatment or placebo was injected under the skin either every two weeks or every four weeks. The key findings indicated that participants who received the active ingredient treatment showed a reduction in LDL cholesterol compared with the control group. Moreover, the patients who had been given the treatment every two weeks showed a larger decrease (66%) in bad cholesterol than the patients that had been received the injection every four weeks (50%). It is also worth mentioning that no side effects were reported during the study. However, this is not to say that side effects may be noticed during an extended trial.

Overall, it can be noted that the study was small scale and that further trials with more participants and more extensive criteria should be conducted. Moreover, experts have expressed concerns that the treatment may be of limited use if it is injected.

As a result of recent research carried out at Oxford University, it has been suggested that the NHS treatment guidelines should change and that as part of the policy, 20 million people should be prescribed statins such as Crestor. Currently those with a one in five chance of heart attack within the next decade are prescribed cholesterol treatment in the form of statins. This does however include 50% of men over the age of 50 and one third of women of this age. It is now suggested that this pool should expand.

The findings, which have spurred on the idea or rather reignited previous arguments in favour of the use of statins for the over 50s, include the discovery that the risk of heart attack and stroke is decreased by one fifth in those who do not have heart disease and who take statins on a precautionary basis. Expanding the number of people who take the cholesterol treatment is estimated to cost the NHS £240 million.

This might seem like an expensive plan however the money that will be saved can be significant. Savings will include the elimination of screening tests in order to pick out those at risk and in need of treatment. In addition, expensive operations will be reduced and there will be fewer hospital admissions and less spent on medication for cardiovascular illnesses. Since half of all cardiovascular events occur in those who have no previous issues and who were not deemed at risk, it must be a good idea to start preventing such heart related illnesses now.

The study revealed that those with the lowest risk (and taking statins) reduced their risk of death by heart attack or stroke by 15%.

The debate is on-going about whether or not taking statins puts our health at risk but there is no evidence out there to suggest that the risks in any way outweigh the benefits. It is unlikely that this suggestion will be taken up by the NHS in the short term but we believe that there is a strong likelihood that we will be moving in this direction.

Pfizer is supposedly hoping to sell its popular statin, Lipitor, over the counter in the USA but would first need the approval of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. This speculation comes at a time when the company’s patent is about to run out and before generic versions emerge at the end of this year. It is said that making Lipitor an over the counter drug would help the company retain its profits after the patent expires.

Some physicians are happy about how much more accessible the drug will be to patients and others feel very strongly that this is a drug that should only be taken under medical supervision. Possible side effects include damage to the liver and muscle degeneration, so regular monitoring is imperative. The possibility of experiencing such side effects is small however.

People look forward to dodging the doctor’s fee, which in the States can be very expensive even if one is requesting a repeat prescription, but is it worth the risk? Statins are, in the main, prescription treatments here in Europe and should only be taken under the supervision of a doctor. A low dose version of simvastatin is available over the counter from a pharmacy in the UK but this was a very controversial move at the time.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have uncovered a new type of cholesterol that has been proven to increase heart disease risk and the study is published in Diabetes. This ‘ultra-bad’ cholesterol, as it is now referred to, is much fattier and stickier than the common LDL (low density lipoprotein) or ‘bad’ cholesterol that we take treatments to control and combined with its altered shape, it is thus much more likely to stick to the walls of the artery.

The ‘ultra-bad’ cholesterol has been found mostly in elderly patients and patients who suffer from diabetes and it is killing thousands of people every year. The cholesterol is formally known as MGmin-LDL. As with LDL cholesterol, arteries narrow and blood flow is hindered causing heart attack and stroke but this type of cholesterol is highly aggressive.

The aim of the study was to find out how the sugary MGmin-LDL molecules reacted with other molecules in the body and their study offered an understanding into why Metformin, the diabetes drug, reduces the risk of heart attack since the drug lowers blood sugar levels and has the potential to stop LDL from turning into the serious ‘ultra-bad’ cholesterol.

The study has shed light on why those who suffer from diabetes are at increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and also recognises the value of metformin which may become more widely prescribed to such patients.

An apple a day keeps the statins away; so a recent study suggests. Women between the ages of 45 and 65 years experienced 23% reduced cholesterol levels within 6 months of eating apples every day and a rise in ‘good’ cholesterol, HDL.

The study was carried out in the Florida State University and the authors describe the apples as a ‘miracle fruit’.  They state that the apples are good for fibre but that in this case the pectin and polyphenols found in apples serve to enhance our body’s metabolism of lipids and reduce inflammation.

160 women received 75g of dried apples each day or dried prunes. Both groups continued to take the fruit for a period of one year. Bloods were taken at intervals of 3 months, 6 months and at the end of the year.

Within only 6 months this 23% decrease in LDL was reported including a 4% increase in the levels of HDL. Furthermore, the apples added an extra 240 calories to the diet of the women but they did not put on any weight, rather they lost on average 3.3 pounds of their original weight. Scientists suggest that the pectin in the apple may have caused the weight loss as this substance is known to contribute to the feeling of fullness.

A new study in The Lancet has suggested that people benefit from taking the popular cholesterol busting drug Simvastatin regardless of the base levels of LDL cholesterol (the bad sort) and C-reactive protein (CRP) – a marker for systemic inflammation and associated with cardiovascular risk.

This study seems to fly in the face of another study published 2 weeks ago that indicated that statins were of no benefit (and possibly harmful) to people who did not have high levels of LDL cholesterol but it is consistent with other studies over the years – including the influential Jupiter study of Crestor that pointed out the benefit of this statin to people with high levels of CRP.

The research that was published in The Lancet was carried out by Oxford University over 5 years. There were over 20,000 subjects, all of whom had a high risk profile for cardiovascular events such as strokes and heart attacks. Not all subjects had high LDL or high base level CRP. The volunteers were randomised to either 40 mg Simvastatin or a placebo. After the 5 years were up, the data were analysed and the Simvastatin group had a 24% lower level of cardiovascular events. A further analysis of the data discovered that there was a reduced risk of cardiovascular events regardless of base levels of LDL cholesterol or CRP levels.

There may be a lot of conflicting messages about statins but the balance of medical opinion is that these drugs (while not without serious side effects in a small number of cases) have the ability to revolutionise the way that we can prevent cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.

A recent audit carried out by the Royal College of Physicians in the UK reveals that thousands of patients have not been screened for a type of preventable heart disease. The details of 2,500 patients who suffered from familial hypercholesterolaemia were looked at and it was found that a very small number of their relations were screened.

Statistics suggest that one in every five hundred British people have what is known as familial hypercholesterolaemia, a type of condition that increases the amount of LDL (bad cholesterol) in the blood. Those who have the condition and who are not diagnosed or treated are in serious danger. A third of women who have it and who do not get treated will develop heart disease by the time they are 60 and one half of men who have it will develop heart disease before they are 55.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence suggests that family members of those who suffer from the condition should have a mandatory DNA and cholesterol test however many hospitals are not taking this advice. Only fifteen per cent of hospital trusts had funded DNA testing available. It is therefore estimated that 100,000 people with this genetic predisposition would not even be diagnosed.

Despite the fact that this type of testing would be of long term financial benefit to the NHS it is not yet part of the budget among individual trusts. The testing, if provided now, could save lives in the next ten to fifteen years.

Merck’s latest experimental cholesterol drug, anacetrapib has yielded some interesting results in a study published with the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug that increases our levels of HDL (good cholesterol) as it simultaneously lowers LDL (bad cholesterol), produced a 39.8% greater reduction in LDL among patients taking it over patients who were taking the placebo. The group taking the anacetrapib were reported to have experienced a 138.1% increase in levels of HDL.

A larger study needs to be carried out before we see the effects of this drug on the health of the heart but the results so far look promising and 30,000 participants will be recruited for a larger outcomes trial.

This new drug is very similar to a CETP inhibitor that was being developed by Pfizer a few years ago but had to be abandoned after trials costing $800 million established that it increased death rates by 59% and heart attacks by 25%. Whatever the outcome, the new Merck drug will not be available until 2015 at the earliest.

Mark Hlatky, a professor of health and research policy and cardiovascular medicine and the author of a study published yesterday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Following from the results of the JUPITER trials involving Crestor or Rosuvastatin 2 years ago, his study sought to uncover the most cost effective way of administering statins to everyone, low and high risk, in order to decrease the risk of potentially fatal illnesses.

The JUPITER study of 2008 proved that millions of people could benefit from the use of statins. The study showed that even those with low levels of LDL cholesterol could benefit from the treatment in order to decrease their risk of developing cardiovascular related illnesses.

The JUPITER study included participants who had low cholesterol levels but high levels of CRP (C-reactive protein levels). Higher levels of CRP suggest inflammation in the body and signal the risk of stroke and heart attack. The JUPITER study showed us that measuring levels of CRP could help us identify people who would benefit from statin therapy in order to decrease their risk of suffering serious cardiovascular conditions.

Implementation however, in a time where the NHS is spending millions on prescription drugs, may take some time. We need to know just how cost effective the idea is and therefore how realistic.

The conclusion the researchers came to showed that prescribing patients with statins in order to decrease levels of risk despite not having knowledge of their CRP levels was deemed the most cost- effective strategy. The study requires further research into the treating of lower risk individuals who do not necessarily need statins and preparations for research on this possible breakthrough method of prescribing are in place.

It is not often we hear about cholesterol levels amongst our young adult population. The frightening figures have been revealed however and some startling discoveries have been made. 1,500 young adults were involved in the survey, with one in six shown to have higher than normal cholesterol levels. More worryingly, one in five of those who are aware of the problem do nothing about it.

Knowing that you have it and ignoring the problem is dangerous as cholesterol is a cause of heart disease, one of Britain’s biggest killers. The symptoms can be few and sometimes no symptoms are experienced. Even jogging every day and eating reasonably well might not keep you safe from the clutches of high cholesterol as the condition is not always lifestyle dependent.

One third of the population have never had their cholesterol tested. Perhaps this is down to a lack of knowledge on the topic.  Only 14% of those who took the survey knew that HDL represented ‘good cholesterol’ and that LDL was recognised as ‘bad cholesterol’. Two thirds of those surveyed did not know the difference between the two. Another two thirds of people did not know what their family history of cholesterol is, a massive indicator for the possibility of developing high cholesterol levels. It is apparent that the British population need to be educated and this survey coincides with the first ever cholesterol awareness week running from September 13^th to September 19^th.

The researchers of Maccabi Health Services, Tel Aviv believe that taking of statins reduces the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and furthermore, the younger one is when taking the treatment, the risk is even less. The study showed that taking statins regularly reduced the possibility of developing the condition by nearly half. The Israeli researchers went through 2,000,000 health records of patients who had been taking statins for cholesterol. Those who were taking the statins regularly were 42% less likely to develop the condition than those who took statins infrequently.

The leader of the research, Dr. Gabriel Chodick said that it is difficult to know whether people are susceptible to rheumatoid arthritis but if a genetic marker was identified in the future then statins might be the answer for the prevention of this debilitating condition. Statins appear to be ineffective in preventing osteoarthritis, which is caused by wear and tear of the cartilage rather than an autoimmune attack on the joints that causes Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Although some patients taking statins experience side effects including trouble sleeping, low libido, and liver problems, the benefits far outweigh the side effects. By decreasing the inflammation of the joints, statins may serve to beat rheumatoid arthritis by easing the condition and maybe even preventing it.

The University of Oxford and the University of Sydney have shown, in a large study on the use of statins and its suspected relationship with cancer, that there is no evidence to suggest that taking stains to reduce cholesterol levels has any effects on the risk of suffering from cancer.

Over 26 different trials and out of a total of over 166,000 participants, 10,000 developed cancer of which 3,500 died as a result. The cancer rates were shown to be the same among those taking statins as those taking the placebo. The Cholesterol Treatments Trialists’ Collaboration analysed the data and found that there was no link between the two. Furthermore, there was no increased risk of developing specific cancers such as breast, prostate or bladder cancer or of certain groups developing cancer. The study also showed that increasing the dosage of the statin had no causal link with cancer; neither did statin consumption prevent the disease.

This is great news for those taking statins to improve their health and to reduce the risk of the possibility of developing heart disease or suffering from a stroke.

The American Journal of Cardiology published a paper yesterday which proposed the selling of statins in fast food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonalds. Right by the salt and ketchup, you would be able to pick up your statin and pop it with your chocolate milkshake in order to decrease your risk of developing heart disease and reverse the effects your meal has had on your cholesterol levels.

Statins are taken by people who have high levels of bad cholesterol in order to decrease their risk of developing heart disease or suffering a heart attack or stroke.

In the paper, by Dr Darrel Francis of Imperial’s National Lung and Heart Institute, he outlines why he and his colleagues think that taking statins as part of an unbalanced diet would be beneficial. The researchers believe that the restaurateurs could make statins available at the same cost as the sachets of salt or ketchup. Francis describes this preventative measure as akin to putting on a seat belt.

The opposing argument suggests that the availability and accessibility of statins would encourage a diet full of junk food. Steve Field, Chairman of the Royal College of Practitioners, expressed his concerns over the idea and feels that by making these pills accessible; one is doing more harm than good as it is likely to increase the level of consumption of fatty fast foods. Guilt free fast food may help to negate the effect a burger will have on cholesterol levels but this kind of food is bound to have other negative effects on the body. There are other factors to be considered. The effects statins have are not always beneficial and in some cases affect the kidneys, the liver and muscle strength. Francis and his team acknowledge that trials need to be carried out in the hope of assessing the potential risks and they have stressed the importance of placing a warning on the statin packaging, which would explain that the statin should not be taken in the place of a balanced diet. We’ll wait and see but judging the sceptical reactions, it doesn’t seem like McDonalds will be dispensing free cholesterol meds anytime soon.

Scientists at The Genome Institute of Singapore have just published some research following studies on blood lipids and their relationship with our genetic patterns. Past studies have demonstrated that blood lipid levels are strongly associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly coronary artery disease.

The Singapore scientists at The Genome Institute of Singapore have collaborated with scientists from the US, Europe and Asia and they have discovered new genes that have a direct relationship with blood lipid levels. Genetic research carried out using diverse groups of people has discovered that information regarding our cardiovascular health is in our genes. The study was carried out using multiple ethnic groups whereas previous studies on the topic of genetic information and disease focused on Europeans. This advanced method of research has not only brought us closer to isolating a common gene which is exposed as having a direct effect on our future cardiovascular health, it has also shown us how similar we are. Cross culturally, we share the same or similar genetic variants regardless of race.

Knowing more about the genetic contribution to lipid levels, is the first step towards the creation of treatments for the primary prevention of some of our biggest killers. It was also stated that the genes determining the abnormality of lipid levels, including unhealthy cholesterol levels, could also be the genes that cause a heart attack. Studies are continuing in the hope that we will learn more about how these diseases are inherited. If we understand more about these diseases and their association with specific genetic codes, we will learn more about the possibility of treating diseases such heart disease and coronary artery disease.

American scientists have suggested that cholesterol screening programs are too restricted and should include greater number of children and young adults.

Current guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children and adolescents with a family history of early-onset heart disease or high cholesterol or already identified risk factors such as obesity or diabetes should be screened for high cholesterol.

However, a new study has pointed out that many people do not know their accurate medical history. They examined 20,000 children in the West Virginia area, both asking for their family histories and testing their cholesterol levels.

The team discovered that more than 71% of the children had family histories that suggested they should be screened for high cholesterol, while 9.5% of those children with no significant family histories also had high cholesterol. 1.7% of those children with high cholesterol but with no family history needed medication to treat the condition.

The findings have resulted in calls for all children to be routinely screened for high cholesterol, not just those with a family history. The authors of the report, published in the journal Pediatrics, have concluded that current screening guidelines result in 36% of children with high cholesterol being missed.

In Britain, a similar study in 2007 called for children to be screened at 15 months. Current guidelines state that screening should take place in under-40s only when they have particular risk factors for the condition.

Though a Mediterranean diet has long been thought to raise the levels of good cholesterol in the body, a study has suggested that some people who suffer heart attacks could have genetic markers which make their diet increase the risk of cardiac problems.

The team discovered that those with high levels of the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL, which is associated with a diet rich in olive oil, nuts and oily fish, has a higher risk of suffering further heart attacks. The people involved had higher levels of the protein CPR, associated with inflammation, which suggested that the protein determined whether high levels of HDL acted as a protection or increased the risk of a heart attack.

The results have been described as ‘counter-intuitive’ by lead researcher Professor James Corsetti of the University of Rochester in New York. However they do perhaps explain why a medication trialled by Pfizer designed to raise levels of HDL cholesterol had disappointing results.

In this study, 767 patients who had had a heart attack were followed for two years. About 20% of the patients who were at high risk of a second heart attack also had high levels of HDL and CRP.

The team have suggested that if doctors and researchers can identify those people who do not benefit from raised levels of HDL, they could properly test medications to raise HDL levels in the rest of the population.

Merke announced in 2011 that they were planning to test an HDL-increasing medication to see whether it reduced incidences of stroke and heart attack.

A study by scientists from the University of Nottingham has led calls for doctors to prescribe the lowest dose of statins when treating patients with high cholesterol, to lower risk of adverse events.

Published in the British Medical Journal, the primary care study showed that the chance of adverse events was increased in different degrees depending on the type, dose and duration of the statins administered.

The team used data taken from 369 general practices, containing the medical records of 2 million patients newly prescribed statins. This included 225,922 patients taking either simvastatin, atorvastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin or rosuvastatin to reduce cholesterol.

Over 8 years, any adverse reaction were recorded. For every 10,000 women at high-risk who were treated with statins, there would be 74 cases of liver damage, 23 cases of kidney failure and 307 cases of cataracts. However, this increased risk was offset by the fact that in the group, there would be 271 fewer cases of heart disease and 8 fewer cases of cancer of the oesophagus.

Doctors have always been aware that statins, like any medication, come with the risk of side effects. However it is generally thought that the risk of side effects is offset by the reduction in cases of heart disease, stroke and other illnesses.

A spokeswoman from the British Heart Foundation, June Davison, said that they were already aware that a small proportion of statin users experience side effects, but that for those at high risk of heart disease, this chance was outweighed by the potential benefits.

Following similar approval in the U.S, drug firm Astra-Zeneca has won approval from European regulators to market their cholesterol-lowering statin to a far wider group of patients.

This means that in 19 European Union countries, the firm will be able to market the product to a far wider patient group. Industry analysts have said that while approval is likely to result in increased sales of the drug, the upcoming expiry of Pfizer’s patent over statin Lipitor in 2011 may affect that, as it will presage the arrival of cheaper generics on the market.

The ruling means that Crestor can now be prescribed to patients thought to be at risk of a first heart attack. The decision comes after further analysis from the Jupiter study, which involved nearly 18,000 patients. It showed that people with elevated levels of the protein C-reactive benefited from treatment with Crestor and reduced their overall risk of experiencing an event like a heart attack or stroke.

Previously Crestor was approved for use in patients with high levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL, which is strongly linked to an increased risk of atheroscelerosis. This is when fatty plaques build up in the blood vessels, increasing the risk of blood flow to the heart being blocked.

Michael Cressman, who is the executive director for clinical research at Astra Zenica, described the decision as a ‘significant milestone’.

Though many food companies have cut down on the amount of transfats they include in their food, UK public health experts have called for a total ban on the ingredient.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, scientists estimated that the solid fats, found in margarine, cakes and junk food, were responsible for a significant number of deaths each year. They estimated that were there to be a 1% reduction in UK consumption, 7,000 deaths each year could be prevented.

Transfats are added to food to improve taste and shelf life, but they do not have any nutritional value. Studies have shown that they can raise cholesterol levels and lead to heart disease.

Earlier this year, the UK facility of Public Health warned that through the average UK resident’s transfat intake only makes up 1% of their daily calorie intake, in some areas and communities, the intake is far higher, putting those groups at risk. Scientists believe that when intake exceeds 2%, the consumer is risking their health.

The Food Standards Agency currently say that as the UK’s average intake is in the safe zone, a total ban is unnecessary.

However in the article, doctors from the Harvard Medical School supported the ban, pointing to the bans in Denmark and New York City which they said had improved health without affecting taste or affordability.

Professor Alan Maryon-Davies of the UK Faculty of Public Health said that his organisation was particularly concerned by the differences in the amount of transfats consumed amongst societal groups and said that young people and those with low incomes were particularly at risk of consuming large amounts of the fats.

A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine has dashed hopes that intensive work to drive down cholesterol levels in diabetic patients could reduce heart problems.

The study was part of the ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) trial, which was designed to see whether drug therapy to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure could make a difference to the higher risk diabetics have of developing heart problems .

Diabetics are thought to be twice as likely as those without the condition to suffer from heart attacks. Generally they are put on medication to reduce the risk, with doctors aiming to lower blood pressure and levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood.

However the researchers have released very surprising data which has showed that such treatments do not in fact cut the risk of heart disease in diabetic patients. Results from the trial, launched ten years ago, showed that lowering the high blood pressure to very low levels did not decrease the number of patients experiencing heart attacks, strokes, or death from cardiovascular causes.

Patients who were taking statins were given an additional drug known as a fibrate which lowers triglycerides while boosting levels of  the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL. Unfortunately, again this did not affect levels of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related death.

The results seemed to show that patients in all groups faced a 2% increased risk of having a cardiovascular event regardless of whether they were receiving intensive treatment to lower blood pressure, a fibrate as well as a statin or a statin alone.

Nonetheless doctors have stressed that though the findings are surprising, patients with diabetes still need to keep their cholesterol and blood pressure levels under control through exercise and diet and should not stop taking any medication without consulting their doctor first.

Even the president of the U.S is not immune to the health problems that afflict most of us as we get older – apparently Barack Obama has slightly raised cholesterol.

Reporters were surprised when after taking the presidential motorcade to give a speech on Monday, the President chose to walk back to the White House through Layfayette Park in Washington. He told them that he was trying to walk of his cholesterol, which he attributed to the year spent campaigning.

He revealed that after having a physical exam on Sunday his doctor told him that the levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL in his blood had risen to the borderline level (meaning they were becoming a concern) since his last exam in 2007.

White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said that the rise was a result of too many cheeseburgers and desserts. He joked with reporters that though they all thought Obama was very conscious about his health and ‘carried arugula in his pocket to snack on’, the president actually has a very sweet tooth.

He said that as Obama has access to kitchen staff and a pastry chef, sweet foods were more available so the president was more likely to indulge his love of desserts.

It is not known whether the president will be starting on statins to lower his cholesterol.

The physical also revealed that President Obama has still not managed to quit smoking, though he has previously spoken about his struggles to give up. Mr. Gibbs said that he was very aware of the example he sets to America’s youth and knows that his addiction is not a ‘good thing’ for either his children or those throughout the States to see.

We tend to think of junk food, obesity and high cholesterol as a problem of the modern age – but apparently the ancient priests of Egypt caused as much damage to their health as we do today/

According to Egyptologists and scientists writing in The Lancetthe priest’s diet, rich in fatty foods, alcohol and red meat, meant that they suffered from heart disease and tended to die early.

In ancient Egypt, the priests were expected to placehuge plates of food before the statues of the gods three times a day, in order to appease them.The gods were offering massive quantities of roasted birds, cakes, bread and oceans of beer and wine – but then the food would be divied up between the priests for them to take home to their families.  Much of the menu was extremely high in saturated fat.

The University of Manchester scientists combined translations of inscriptions on the temple walls with analysis of the priest’s mummified remains, to work out how bad their atheroscelerosis (or build up of fatty plaques in the arteries) was.

They showed that the priests were suffering from high cholesterol long before Macdonalds and fried chicken became such a problem. Of the 16 mummies they examined, 9 showed signs of atheroscelerosis. It is thought that for the peasants who made up the majority of the population, living off cereals and vegetables, high cholesterol was very far from being a problem.

Some unscrupulous priests could even be accused of deserving everything they got, after inscriptions indicated that they would take the food without even offering it to the gods.

Professor Tony Heagerty said that the findings showed that the modern plague of cholesterol is ‘nothing more than history revisiting us’, as unequivocally ‘atherosclerosis is a disease of ancient times.’

A research group in the UK have claimed that the use of statins increases the chances of someone developing diabetes. However they said that the risk of diabetes was outweighed by the benefits that statins provide.

The team analysed data from 13 different trials, were statins were prescribed to over 90,000 patients. Of those patients, over 4,000 went on to develop type 2 diabetes during the 4 years the average patient was monitored for. The study was published in the Lancet.

Taking a statin according to the study put patients at a 9% higher risk of developing diabetes compared with those who were not on statin treatment. This was the equivalent of 1 person amongst 255 patients taking statins for 4 years of developing diabetes.

The researchers particularly noticed that for older patients, there seemed to be a stronger association between diabetes and statins. However there seemed to be no greater risk dependant on the type of statin used.

Statins are widely prescribed to lower cholesterol levels in patients, generally above 40 years of age. They have been shown to dramatically reduce the chances of someone experiencing a heart attack or stroke, as high cholesterol can cause blockages in the heart due to the build up of fatty deposits in the arteries.

The lead researcher, Professor Naveed Satar, professor at Glasgow University  of metabolic medicine, said that clinical practice in the treatment of cardiovascular problems would not change, regardless of the findings of the study. He said that the “small absolute risk” of developing the condition was outweighed by the reduction in risk for strokes and heart attacks.

A leading heart surgeon has called for butter to be banned, saying that the move would dramatically lower the cholesterol rates of the nation and cut down the number of people developing heart disease.

Dr Shyam Kolvekar, a surgeon at University College Hospital, has said that he has grown increasingly worried about the number of patients he is seeing who need heart surgery due to a diet high in saturated fats, including patients has young as 30.

A saturated-fat heavy diet increased cholesterol dramatically, which itself causes fatty deposits to build up which can eventually block the flow of blood to the heart, causing heart attacks and strokes. Each year cardiovascular disease causes 198,000 deaths in Britain each year and costs the economy £7.9 billion.

Dr. Kolvekar said that if the UK were to ban butter and use a replacement, low-cholesterol spread instead, the average daily fat intake would be reduced by 8 grams, or 40% of a woman’s Guideline Daily Fat amount.

The Daily Mail however published a quote from the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who is famous for using butter fairly frequently in his cooking. He apparently doesn’t like the whole kind of "food police" and pointed out that butter can be eaten in moderation.

Dr. Kolvekar’s rather militant views on the creamy spread might be explained by the fact that his comments were distributed to the press by KTB, Flora margarine spread’s PR company. They say that he is not receiving any payment however and that he genuinely does believe butter should be banned.

As for us, while the doctor absolutely has a point in saying that many people are developing heart problems due to ‘lifestyle choices’ and we firmly believe the nation needs to pay far more attention to diet, moderation is the key. Processed and junk foods are a far bigger threat than a bit of Lurpack from time to time.

Despite the data from the study having been released over a year ago, scientists analysing the Jupiter study into the cholesterol-lowing statin, Crestor, say that is could be of special benefit to women.

Last year Jupiter gathered data on thousands of people to see whether the statin drug could be beneficial for them. It was shown that Crestor reduced by 45% the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, bypass or dying from cardiovascular disease.

Now after studying information on the 6,801 women who took part in the trial they have discovered that while men taking part saw their risk of experiencing an adverse heart event reduced by 42% this jumped to 46% in women.

Presenting the new data at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, the director for AstraZeneca’s Director for Crestor Clinical Development, said that women had been underrepresented in clinical trials into statins and previously there had been limited evidence that women could benefit from statin therapy. He added that the Crestor study was the first to show a significant reduction in cardiovascular risk in women wth no previous history of heart disease.

At the moment, statins are some of the most widely-prescribed drugs on the market. There is fierce competition amongst the pharmaceutical companies as to which one their products achieves market dominance and doubtless Astra-Zeneca are hopeful that their research will give them the lead when it comes to marketing.

We all know lowering cholesterol is good for the health of our heart, reducing the risk of developing heart disease or experiencing a stroke. Now scientists believe lower cholesterol could also reduce a person’s chances of developing certain cancers.

According to one of the studies published this week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention low cholesterol is associated with a 60% reduced risk of developing the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. 

5,586 men aged 55 or over were studied as part of a large cancer prevention study begun in the 1990s. They discovered that there was a “striking reduction in risk”, as the accompanying editorial put it, of developing the aggressive form of the cancer.

A second study was also published which showed that high levels of the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL could protect against liver, lung and other cancers.

Average levels of HDL cholesterol are about 50mg/dL on average for men, but in the first study it was shown that those men with HDL cholesterol above 55 were 11% less likely to develop cancer.  This result was based on data taken from 29,000 Finnish male smokers over an 18-year-period.

While the scientific world is excited about the results, it has been agreed that more work needs to be done to get clearer answers about the relationship between cholesterol and cancer. Previous reports have suggested that statins can reduce cancer rates, but again there are no definitive answers about this.  

A leading health expert has warned that Britain faces a ticking time bomb over the growing number of people developing heart disease due to high cholesterol.

Dr. Andrew Carson, a senior lecturer in general practice at Birmingham University, has warned that high cholesterol could be leaving the UK with an ‘uncontrollable epidemic’ unless a creative solution to the problem is found.

He described how heart problems are already costing the NHS £14 billion a year and said that a more imaginative solution needed to be found to treat them.

He has called for more money to be spent on finding alternatives to statins, the cholesterol lowering drugs that are currently prescribed to large sections of the over-40 s population. He said that as they do not always work for cardiovascular patients, an alternative was needed, suggesting that there needs to be more research into the compound in tomatoes, believed to be responsible for making the Mediteranean diet so healthy.

He wants the NHS to fund research into a compound called Ateronon, based on lycopene, the tomato compound. He has said that this compound could provide a cheaper alternative to statins, on which £500,000 million is spent each year.

The cholesterol problem has been exacerbated by rising obesity levels, poor diet and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle in England. Though money has been channelled into raising awareness of healthy living, the message is proving hard to get though, with experts suggesting that by 2050, 90% of children at the moment could have weight problems.

A team of scientists have said that they believe that cholesterol is important for the development of brain cells, findings they hope will lead to the development of new treatments for Parkinson’s Disease.

In a study published in this month’s edition of Cell Stem Cell, the international research group showed that mice needed an oxidised form of cholesterol, oxysterol, to allow dopamine-producing brain cells to activate a receptor.

Their research, based on stem cells, also showed that when embryonic stem were treated with oxysterol they were able to create more dopamine-producing cells . Stem cells also have a tendancy to grow uncontrollably and the team believe treatment with cholesterol stopped this undesirable growth.

The lead scientist Professor Ernest Arenas from the Centre for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Sweden and colleagues from Australia, the US and the UK concluded that treating embryonic human stem cells with the oxidised cholesterol could improve stem cell treatments for Parkinson’s by “selectively augmenting” the amount of dopamine-producing neurons.

Their ultimate aim is to one day replace the dead cells in the brain of Parkinson’s patients with cells producing dopamine which have been grown in a lab. The lab-created cells could also be used to test potential new treatments for the debilitating disease.

Scientists have warned that men with high cholesterol and those who smoke may be risking their life span being cut short by ten years compared to their healthy counterparts.

The study, which was based in the UK, showed that men with unhealthy lifestyles could be seriously curtailing their life expectancy. The researchers from Oxford University examined data taken from 19,000 civil servants aged between 40 and 69 and then followed them to discover what happened to them over 30 years later.

They discovered that there were three risk factors that had a serious impact on how long they lived, which were: high blood pressure; high cholesterol; and whether or not they smoked. All three are strongly associated with the lifestyle choices people make, as both high cholesterol and high blood pressure are often caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.

Published in the British Medical Journal, the study was originally set up in the late 1960s, a period when vascular heart disease was rife. The civil servants had their heaight, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose measures taken and were then asked about their lifestyle and medical history.

When they were traced in 2005, 13,501 of the volunteers had died. The scientists discovered that there was a 15 year life expectancy difference between the 5% with the lowest risk factors and the 5% with the highest risk factors.

The team said that their findings showed that men aged 50 with the three risk factors could expect to live to 74, which those with no risk factors were likely to survive until 83. They added that men who took steps to reduce the risk factors in their life, by attempting to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol and stop smoking, could expect to significantly prolong their lives.

An Austrian trial has uncovered a link between the regular consumption of rapeseed oil and the reduction of cholesterol.

According to the research, rapeseed oil can cut levels of bad cholesterol by 29% after just five months. The trial even suggests that adding rapeseed oil to your diet may lower cholesterol and blood fat levels of patients who have had high cholesterol from birth.

This could be good news for Britons, sixty thousand of which suffer from the familial metabolic condition known as hypercholesterolemia. This can lead to an increased risk of developing atherosclerosis or furring up of the arteries, and heart disease. Especially if the studies claim that the oil can cut levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides (blood fat levels) by up to 29 per cent after just five months are accurate.

Rapeseed oil contains half the saturated fat of more common oils such as olive oil. It is also high in unsaturated fats, which help reduce cholesterol levels.

In the Austrian trial, children aged six to eighteen who suffered from hypercholesterolemia ate a classic low-fat and low cholesterol diet enriched with rapeseed oil. In the first two months they consumed an average of 15 grams a day, which went up to 22 grams a day for the last three months. The results of the trial confirmed a cut in the level of bad cholesterol by 29% after only five months.

The benefits of a diet rich in rapeseed oil are also backed up by new research that reaffirms that the reduction of bad cholesterol alone is not enough to reduce the risk of heart disease. Not only must bad cholesterol be reduced but good cholesterol must also be increased in order to protect your heart. An oil such as rapeseed, which is low in saturated fats and low in unsaturated fats is therefore an ideal supplement for a healthy heart.

We all know high cholesterol is bad for the heart – but new research has suggested that it can reduce a woman’s sex drive as well. A study carried out at the Second University of Naples has shown that hyperlipedemia – or raised levels of blood cholesterol – can prevent women from becoming sexually aroused.

It was reported in the New Scientist that showed that just as men can have trouble achieving an erection if the flow of blood to the genitals is impared, so too women also rely on good genital blood flow to get aroused.

The researchers compared the sexual function of pre-menopausal women with and without hyperlipedemia. They discovered that women with the condition reported significantly lower scores when their arousal, orgasm, lubrication and sexual satisfaction was measured.

32% of the women with abnormal blood cholesterol levels scored so low as to be diagnosed with female sexual dysfunction, while only 9% of the women with normal blood lipid levels had this condition.

The research indicates that female sexual arousal is connected to organic diseases in the same way that men’s sexual problems are. The full study can be read in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Astra-Zeneca PLC, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the cholesterol-lowering medication Crestor , this week released new analysis of the data from a major clinical trial into the drug that showed it reduced the risk of stroke and heart attack in elderly patients.

Data from the Jupiter study was first announced in November, when Astra-Zeneca showed that the drug had a significant impact on lowering the rates of mortality and morbidity from heart attacks and strokes in users of all ages, regardless of whether they had any pre-existing health conditions.

The new analysis was unveiled at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona and demonstrated that the 5,695 patients over 70 taking Crestor during the study had a 39% reduced risk of experiencing a major cardiovascular event such as myocardial infarcation, stroke, or death from cardiovascular problems.

More specifically, the data showed that there was a 45% decrease in the chances of a patient having a heart attack or stroke, and there was a 49% reduction in the need for hospitalisation for arterial revascularisation or unstable angina.

Crestor has already received approval from the FDA and the European Medicines Agency and is now sold in over 95 countries; Astra-Zeneca said that nearly 17 million patients worldwide have been prescribed the drug.

Scientists have said that a little known form of cholesterol may pose the biggest threat of heart disease to the population. Mostly found in junk food, takeaways and processed food, oxycholesterol is formed when food like burgers or meat is fried or grilled.

The process causes the fat in the meats to react with oxygen, giving an extra boost to the levels of cholesterol in the blood and causing more damage to the arteries than ordinary cholesterol.

Generally, cholesterol warnings have focused on the type of cholesterol called low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, which causes hard deposits of fat to build up around the arteries and can lead to heart attacks of strokes.

Current drug treatments, known as statins, focus on lowering levels of LDL cholesterol in patients and are frequently prescribed to those with high cholesterol or those with other risk factors in their lives that make them especially vulnerable to heart disease.

Dr Zhen-Yu Chen, from the University of Hong Kong, lead the study, which saw hamsters being fed a diet high in oxycholesterol. The study showed that the hamster’s blood cholesterol rose by 22% when they were given a diet containing non-oxidised cholesterol. They also had more cholesterol deposits in the lining of their arteries.

He said that LDL cholesterol was still a crucial health risk but added that the public also needed to be aware of oxycholesterol. He advised that a diet high in anti-oxidants containing fruits, vegetables, beans and certain herbs could help people stay healthy.

A new medication has just received approval from the Federal Food and Drug Administration to treat high cholesterol. Livalo, also known by its medical name pitavastatin, was approved after 5 clinical studies that compared its safety and effectiveness to 3 other popular statin medications.

The medicine is designed to lower elevated or abnormal cholesterol levels and according to the manufacturer, Kowa Pharmaceuticals, has a unique structure that means its has greater potential for lowering LDL cholesterol and reducing plasma cholesterol.

The chief operating officer of Kowa said their product stood out in the already overcrowded statin market because it is metabolized differently to most of its competitors, meaning that there are less of the common drug interactions that can make things difficult for patients taking multiple medications.

They plan to launch the product onto the American market at the beginning of 2010. Kawa say they plan to market it though a combination of its own sales force and a marketing partner. They are currently looking for the partner and say that a number of companies have expressed an interest.

Research has suggested that slow blood flow may hamper the effects of the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins. Scientists from Imperial University have shown that sluggish blood flow prevents statins from causing production of healthy anti-oxidant molecules.

Statins primary use is to lower the levels of dangerous LDL cholesterol in the blood. People with high cholesterol are at a much greater risk of developing atheroscelerosis, or furring of the arteries. This can lead to heart attacks and strokes and it has been estimated that 10,000 UK residents lives are saved through statin use each year

As well as lowering cholesterol, statins also trigger the creation of powerful antioxidants in the bloodstream, by boosting the levels of the enzyme heme oxygenese.

The team discovered that in cells where there was fast and steady blood flow, the levels of H-O1 were markedly higher than in those cells exposed to irregular or sluggish blood flow.

The study showed that statins fail to work best in the areas where the body’s defences are the weakest. Blood vessels with fatty deposits from high cholesterol are most likely to have sluggish blood flow as the blood is blocked from moving about.

Dr. Justin Mason, who worked on the study, described this as a ‘double whammy’, saying that the arteries most likely to become diseased were also the regions where statins might not be working to their full potential.

The team published their research in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. They hope now to be able to discover a way to turn off the protective mechanisms of in the vulnerable arteries, or find some other means of maximizing the potential of statins.

Scientists have uncovered 20 genes that they believe may hold the key to controlling cholesterol. German researchers say that the genes they have discovered affect the amount of cholesterol in cells and could play a role in creating a risk for heart disease, as well as offering the potential for new treatments for lowering cholesterol.

The researchers said that as blood cholesterol levels are controlled by the amount of cholesterol in cells, the genes identified as regulating cell cholesterol could help reduce high blood cholesterol in the future. The condition, known as hypercholesterolemia, is linked to cardiovascular mortality and events such as heart attacks and strokes.

The discovery was made when scientists from the University of Heidelberg used a technique called RNA interference to isolate the instructions that the genes issue to make proteins. The researchers starved isolated cells of cholesterol and then examined which genes reacted. Having identified the genes, they then turned them selectively on and off to see what effect their action had on the cells.

The scientists said that the methods they used to identify the genes signified a move from discovering genes in single families or genomic studies with larger numbers of people. They said that analysing many genes at the same time not only made it easier to discover the relevant genes but improved description of the molecular roles of cholesterol regulators in affecting health and disease.

The results from the study have been published in this week’s edition of the journal Cell Metabolism.

Further weight has been added to calls to make statin prescriptions more widespread after a study was published confirming that they do make the risk of a heart attack less likely, even in healthy individuals.

The researchers from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam have published a study in the British Medical Journal indicating that after reviewing 10 trials into statins and data about over 70,000 patients, statins will cut mortality – from all causes – by 12% in patients who do not already have heart disease. Users were 30% less likely to have a heart attack and 19% less likely to have a stroke.

There have already  been calls for statins to be prescribed to as many people as possible over 40, the age when heart problems and high cholesterol become more likely. The researchers said in renowned medical publication that statins should be prescribed to people without heart disease but with other risk factors for heart attacks and strokes, such as high blood pressure or diabetes.

They added that it was very likely that many people would benefit from taking statins as long as they were priced reasonably. However they pointed out that identifying people with risk factors would present a challenge and acknowledged that prescribing the medication to all people over a certain age would be difficult in terms of cost and safety.

New research has indicated that thousands of Britain in the UK may be unaware they are suffering from high cholesterol caused by an inherited condition. An audit by the Royal College of Physicians has found that many people are not being screened for familial hypercholesterolemia, despite family members having been found to have the condition.

Familiar hypercholesterolaemia causes high levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL, which can lead to furring of the arteries and therefore heart disease. One estimate suggested that up to 80% of people suffering from this are not being offered the necessary tests. Untreated it can raise the chances of heart disease in men by 50% by the time they are 50, and in women by 30% by the time they are 60.

Across 12 hospitals in England and Wales, the audit found that family members of those diagnosed with the condition were not being tested, though care for those found to have the condition was generally very good. The audit called for improved screening nationwide, with specialist provisions for diagnosing children and young people.

Experts have said that the reason testing is not reaching adequate levels is a lack of NHS funding for DNA testing, as well as not enough nurses and provisions to get families checked out. The condition has been described as a “silent killer” by Dr Mike Knapton of the British Heart Foundation, who said that if tested the 100,000 people living unaware with it could lead normal lives if treated and instructed how to manage it.

Researchers in Denmark say they have found strong evidence that a usually ignored form of cholesterol may be responsible for heart attacks. Their research showed that people with elevated levels of lipoprotein a, about which little is known, were up to three times more likely to experience a heart attack.

Levels of lipoproteins can vary from one person to another by up to 1000-fold. Those with the highest levels of the cholesterol were between 2 to 3 times more likely to experience heart problems according to the study data, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The team analysed the genes of 45,000 people who had given blood samples as part of a national survey, started in 1976. The volunteers had their lipoprotein levels tested and were followed until 2007.

Lead scientist Borge Nordestgaard, of the Copenhagan University Hospital, said that the study had shown definitively that high levels of lipoproteins cause heart attacks. Currently, there are a variety of medications on the market that treat high cholesterol, called statins. These include Crestor (rosuvastatin) and Pfizor’s Lipitor. However none of these medications treat high levels of lipoprotein, though the vitamin Niacin and aspirin are also thought to reduce lipoprotein in the blood. Nordestgaard suggested that lipoproteins may be the reason that statins don’t work for some people.

The scientists have said that they hope their research will encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in research into treatments that will lower lipoprotein cholesterol.

Many doctors are very hopeful that the recent development of cholesterol-lowering medications may make a big difference in lowering morbidity from heart disease and strokes. Now scientists from Cambridge University believe they have discovered the next big thing – a tomato based tablet that can almost entirely remove unwanted blood fats within eight weeks.

The pill was created by a team from the biotechnology off-shoot of the university and is called Ateronon. It is designed to mimic a Mediterranean diet, long believed to stem heart problems. The drug blocks bad cholesterol – LDL cholesterol – due to the active ingredient, Lycopene. In initial tests done on 150 people, it appeared that Ateronon reduced the oxidisation of fats in the blood nearly completely over two months.

The pill will be launched by Cambridge Theranostics LTD as a dietary supplement and neuroscientist Peter Kirkpatrick, who will be leading further trials at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, thinks that it could prove even more effective than current statin-based treatments prescribed on the NHS. However various experts from the British Heart Foundation and the cholesterol charity Heart UK have warned that though initial trial results are exciting, more needs to be known about the medication.

A bug that may hold the key to fighting heart disease has been discovered by Spanish scientists in the most unlikely of places - sewage.

The bacterium, called Gordonia cholesterolivorans, was uncovered within waste sludge by scientists at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has the potential, through genetic modification, to enable the break down of cholesterol in humans.

Cholesterol is a steroid found in all body tissues and is often used as a stabiliser or emollient in cosmetics. As a result, many steroids, including cholesterol, can be found in urban sewage. Gordonia bacteria have been recognised as a separate group of bacteria since 1997 but it is only now that it has been isolated that the full potential of the bacteria has been recognised.

Gordonia cholesterolivorans is already used to degrade a large amount of environmental pollutants including various plastics, rubber and dangerous explosive compounds such as hexogen. It is now hoped that the bugs metabolising qualities can be harnessed for use in pharmaceutical and medical products in the near future.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that some Gordonia species are poisonous to humans, it is not likely that the bug will be able to be used directly in these treatments. Rather it will enable scientists to identify and construct metabolically engineered strains which will be invaluable in the treatment of high cholesterol in humans.

Further research was published today supporting theories that statins may lower the chances of developing a stroke, as well as lowering cholesterol. French scientists from Paris-Diderot University found that patients were 21% less likely to have a stroke for each millimole decrease in the blood levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol low-density lipoprotein (LDL).

The researchers studied data on over 165,000 patients, taken from 24 separate studies into statins. One study indicated that recurrent strokes became 16% less likely with statin use and the team also believe that blockages in the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain, are reduced. The researchers have called for further research to see whether statins might be a useful treatment after someone has experienced a stroke.

At the moment, around 5 million people in the U.K are taking statins, which cost around 85p per patient per month. They are prescribed to reduce someone’s risk of a heart attack, as they lower cholesterol by taking out cholesterol from the blood stream, thus decreasing overall cholesterol levels in the body.

In the article published in the journal Lancet Neurology, the study’s lead author Dr Pierre Amarenco commented: “Lipid (blood fat) lowering with statins is effective in reducing both initial and recurrent stroke. “Because this effect seems to be associated with the extent of LDL cholesterol reduction, the next step is to assess the effectiveness and safety of further reductions in LDL cholesterol after a stroke”.

Stroke expert Phillip Bath, of the Stroke Association and professor at Nottingham University, believes that sufficient evidence has now been gathered to support wider prescribing of statins. “There is more than enough data now to say that high risk patients and the majority of those who have had a vascular event, such as an ischemic stroke or a heart attack, should be on a statin but it is not happening universally” he said. “We should be using statins more widely than we are."

Scientists from America have discovered that a leading anti-cholesterol drug, rosuvastatin, may also lower the risk of blood clots and deep-vein thrombosis. A study has showed that the medicine, marketed as Crestor, reduces the chances of venous thromboembolism (VTE), forms of which include DVT and pulmonary embolisms, by 43% in healthy people.

Pulmonary embolisms are the most common preventable cause of death in hospital patients, while estimates suggest that each year 25,000 people die from blood clots. An MPs report in 2007 said that less than half of all patients admitted to hospital are aware of the risks and VTE accounted for around 10% of all hospital deaths, costing the NHS £640 million.

Lead researcher Dr Paul Ridker has said that statin therapy as a treatment for potential clots is particularly exciting as it is not associated with excess bleeding, an occasional side-effect of commonly used blood thinners like warfarin. The medical director of the British Heart Foundation has welcomed the research, saying that “further clinical trials are now needed to see if patients at high risk of a DVT are protected by statins. If they are, the findings could lead to such patients being prescribed statins to protect them in the future”.

The researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, based their study on data gathered from 17,802 healthy individuals. Their findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology Conference and are being published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that there is a genetic link to high levels of the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL-C in the blood and think they have discovered the genetic makeup that explains why some people naturally have lots of ‘good’ cholesterol and others don’t. HDL is beneficial because it carries excess cholesterol, which otherwise can block the arteries and cause heart attacks and strokes, back to the liver for processing and elimination.

Daniel Rader and his colleagues at the University looked at the LIPG gene in 585 subjects of European Ancestry to see how mutations in this gene affected levels of HDL. They discovered that there was a previously unreported mutation of this gene that was unique to those people with very high HDL-C levels. Upon further investigation they concluded that the mutations in the LIPG gene caused there to be less activity of a certain type of lipase, the endothelial lipase. This has provided crucial evidence that inhibiting this type of lipase is very likely to raise HDL-C levels in humans.

It has now been suggested that the research may lead to the development of a medication that would suppress the action of the endothelial lipase. Scientists have already said that there is a strong likelihood that the lipase plays a role in the development of atherosclerosis, when fatty plaques build up and block the arteries.

For all those who are interested in cholesterol, strange genetic-mutation animals and scientific breakthroughs, then this bit of news is for you. Traditionally, it is very difficult to observe the development of atheroscelerosis – the lining of the arteries with fatty plaques – due to the arteries being inside people who are alive and more concerned with not eating hamburgers than having their hearts scanned.

But help is on the way in a rather unexpected form – a transparent fish. The zebra fish is see- through, which allowed scientists to watch the blood vessels furring up with cholesterol and subsequently narrowing, after they fed it junk food. A green fluorescent protein was used to light up the cells lining the inner surface of the blood vessels, while red-tagged dietary fats  and inflammatory immune cells were used to illuminate the damaged areas.

While studies had been done on rabbits and mice to observe the effects of extreme hyperlipidemia – or the presence of excess fat and cholesterol in the blood – detailed examination of the build up of fatty plaques was only possible through a post-mortem. The study has been published online, ahead of its appearance in the print copy of Circulation Research, which the American Heart Association publishes.

The scientists from the University of California are hopeful that the research will help doctors understand better how heart disease happens in humans. The doctor who lead the study, Dr. Yury Miller, said: “The use of this transparent zebrafish model is a promising method to screen for new drugs and cardiovascular imaging agents".

New research has indicated that statins are even more effective than previously thought and has paved the way for a far more widespread prescription program. At the moment about 1 in 4 people over 40 are prescribed the medications, which by lowering cholesterol decrease the risk of heart disease, but experts are now recommending that anyone with a 1-in-10 chance of a heart attack, making millions more eligible for the treatment.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University in Israel conducted a study over five years to see how great an impact statins had on mortality rates amongst those with and without heart disease. They found that the drugs could reduce heart-disease related death by up to 50% amongst those without the illness at the time of starting the medication. They found that the impact of taking the daily pills was higher in those with a raised level of LDL cholesterol - the ‘bad’ cholesterol that causes fatty deposits called plaques to build up in the arteries, causing blockages – and those taking the higher-potency drug.

The national director for heart disease and stroke in the UK, Professor Peter Boyle, has recommended that a program be launched which would see GPs assess the risk of heart attack in all those over 40 but has warned that some might be uncomfortable taking daily medication despite being in good health, essentially becoming a ‘patient’ . He pointed out that the treatment would be cost effective, even with the added expense of increased patient assessments, considering the cost is about 54p per person per month but considerably impact on the number of heart bypasses and heart attacks.

The British Heart Foundation has greeted the proposals with encouragement, with Peter Weissberg of the charity indicating that widespread statin treatment is the way forward: “In the UK, prescription of statins for primary prevention is currently confined to those considered to be at high risk of developing heart disease. As the evidence accumulates and statins become less expensive, it is highly likely that the threshold for using statins in primary prevention will fall."