AUSTIN -- Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women, yet only one form of medication has proven to effectively reduce a key contributor to cardiac events.
For the last 25 years or so, doctors have reported that statins -- cholesterol lowering drugs -- such as Lipitor have been the gold standard when it comes to reducing bad cholesterol, but at least 20 percent of the population can't tolerate them. No suitable alternatives have surfaced, until now.
Mike Matthews, the director of pharmacy at Heart Hospital of Austin, suffers from high cholesterol.
"My big concern was plaque in the arteries and everything that goes along with that," Matthews said.
To avoid heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular events, Matthews has taken statins for 20 years, but he's worried about the long term effects.
"That's your big concern," Matthews said. "Anything taken long term is – what effect is this going to have on me? Is it safe?"
The good news for Matthews and patients who simply can't tolerate statins is there are now several studies involving non-statin drugs that have had significantly positive results.
"They've showed to decrease cholesterol, the LDL cholesterol – the bad cholesterol -- by about 50 to 70 percent," said Mark Picone, an interventional cardiologist at Heart Hospital and Austin Heart.
Picone is the principal investigator of the study at the Heart Hospital of Austin. Picone and other researchers around the world are looking at about 20,000 high-risk patients combined.
"When I talk about high-risk patient population I mean patients that just had a recent heart attack," said Picone. "Patients that recently had a stroke or an unstable coronary syndrome. Those are the patients that are at higher risk for recurrent events."
Matthews hasn't had a cardiovascular event yet, and doesn't want to experience one. He knows these new drugs afford him a much better chance of leading a healthier and longer life.
"If you can take these medications and they help you to live a healthy lifestyle and be healthier that is a wonderful thing," Matthews said.
Picone said these new drugs can work together with statins. He says the drugs may get FDA approval within a year, and might be available in two years.
