| 29 Nov 2008 |
|
Normal cholesterol levels could still pose risk to heart
- Text size
Saturday, Nov 29, 2008
Gulf News
Dubai: Normal cholesterol levels is now a cardiovascular risk when other risk factors are present, a study recently found, prompting doctors to recommend new lows for cholesterol.
The Gupiter study, commissioned by pharmaceutical company Astra-Zeneca, found patients with normal cholesterol levels were still getting heart attacks and strokes, requiring them to lower their levels even more. According to the American Heart Association, normal cholesterol level is below 200 milligrammes per decilitre of blood (mg/dl), borderline high is between 200mg/dl to 240 mg/dl and high is above 240 mg/dl.
Dr Afzal Hussain Yousuf Ali, consultant cardiologist in-charge at Dubai HospitalDubai Hospital
, told Gulf News that normal cholesterol was no longer safe, requiring more aggressive action."Half of the people [on the UAE heart registry] who are getting heart attacks have normal cholesterol. Normal is no longer normal. We need to reduce the levels even further to 60 - 70 mg/dl," he said.
"The average of age of our patients in the registry is around 50, while in Europe it is 65," he added.
He said doctors, especially primary care physicians, should consider putting patients with normal cholesterol levels or increasing their dosage of anti-cholesterol drugs, or statins. These patients should also have additional cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure and family history, but lifestyle changes should also be stressed.
About 1,800 UAE residents are on the UAE heart registry, kept by the Emirates Cardiac Society. Those on the registry have had heart problems in some way or another, including heart attacks, blocked arteries and/or unstable angina. The youngest age is 24 while the oldest is 75.
Sensitivity
Dr Abdullah Shehab, president of continuing medical education at Emirates Cardiac Society, told Gulf News the society was planning on doing a prevalence rate study on CRP sensitivity in the UAE.
"We'll have a better idea of the risk factors. The problem in our part of the world is that we only look at the end patient. We don't know what happens when they leave the hospital," he said.
© Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.