The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last Thursday approved a new daily pill that lowers levels of dangerous cholesterol.<\/p>\n
The pill is expected to boost compliance rates compared to previously used medications, according to the news release from the University of Maryland Medical System.<\/p>\n
About a quarter of adults in the US have high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, putting them at higher risks of strokes and heart attacks, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Lipfendra is the first oral drug to block bad cholesterol production \u2013 blockers were originally available only in injectable form.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to give themselves shots,\u201d University of Maryland Medical System cardiologist Scott Jerome said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you make something easy for people, they\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injectable shot is the most efficient cholesterol therapy, outweighing all other medications.<\/p>\n
The new pill has the same efficiency in a simpler format, Jerome added.<\/p>\n
Cholesterol is necessary to build cells and hormones, but an excess of LDL cholesterol can clog arteries and restrict blood flow.<\/p>\n
Diet, exercise, body weight and genetics can all be causes of high cholesterol.<\/p>\n
Lipfendra can lower LDL cholesterol levels to around 50 or 60, a beneficial drop from the LDL level of 100 typically seen in adults not taking cholesterol drugs.<\/p>\n
Lipfendra is meant to be used in combination with diet and exercise, according to the FDA.<\/p>\n
Statins, the common cheap drug used to control cholesterol levels for the past 40 years, have a bad stigma stemming from antimedication groups, Jerome said.<\/p>\n
Despite the lack of scientific basis, some people stop taking the medication because of myths and misinformation.<\/p>\n
Statins stop the production of cholesterol, while Lipfendra blocks cholesterol from binding to receptors.<\/p>\n
The new drug is already getting traction from consumers.<\/p>\n
Jerome\u2019s physician assistant received a message from a patient inquiring about the drug a mere day after it was approved.<\/p>\n
He predicts it will take about three months until Lipfendra is readily available to consumers.<\/p>\n
The pill is also expected to be cheaper than the injectable version.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, this pill will be [available at] lower costs than the others,\u201d Jerome said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re easier to take, thus more compliant.\u201d \u2013 Baltimore Sun\/Tribune News Service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last Thursday approved a new daily pill that lowers levels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[274],"tags":[7229,18,135,6424,19,17,250655,462],"class_list":["post-611003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-cholesterol","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-heart-attack","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lipfendra","tag-medication"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117006843638985866","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}