Take this, prevent that
A pill a day could cut your risk of heart disease and cancer, prevent breakouts and breakdowns, even help you avoid a stroke. The medicine of tomorrow has arrived, but should you take it?
By Shari Roan
Photo by Jim Jordan
Photo by Jim Jordan
Many physicians say it's too soon for people with normal cholesterol to be taking the drugs for prevention, but others disagree.
"Everyone should consider taking a statin," says Peter Salgo, M.D., an internist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. "I don't think we should put them in drinking water, but if you give statins to people who are at relatively low risk for heart attack, their risk goes down even further. At the very least, you'll have fewer heart attacks and likely fewer deaths in the general population. And statins, over many years, have proven to be well tolerated, low-risk and highly beneficial."
In his new book, The Heart of the Matter, Salgo also suggests that adults take a short course of antibiotics to reduce the risk of a heart attack caused by Chlamydia pneumoniae (which isn't the same as the sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis). Studies have shown that people who have had heart attacks often carry this bacterium, which causes inflammation in the coronary artery walls.
While an association between antichlamydia antibiotics and a reduced incidence of heart attack has yet to be confirmed, the evidence is strong enough for people to ask their doctors for a one-time, two-to-three-week course to protect themselves, says Salgo. Such a short course shouldn't aggravate the growing problem of drug resistance, he adds.
"There is all this suggestive evidence that Chlamydia pneumoniae can cause heart disease," he says. "Suppose that's right and you treat it with an antibiotic. You may have just saved your life."
While these suggestions sound sensible, they may be premature. "The scientific data to support the use of statins in healthy people at low risk for heart disease isn't conclusive," says Rose Marie Robertson, M.D., chief scientific officer for the American Heart Association. "Before you take any medication, it's important to recognize that there are risks and benefits to everything. The best thing is to work with your caregiver to find out what your individual risks are. As for antibiotics, there really isn't enough good scientific data to support this recommendation."
it all started with aspirin
No prevention drug has the cachet of aspirin. A small daily dose of aspirin--75 to 325 milligrams--is now widely accepted as a sound strategy for cutting the risk of heart attack by as much as 44 percent, primarily by preventing the blood from clotting and/or reducing the body's inflammatory response. Aspirin has also been proven to reduce the risk of stroke, and studies are underway to see if it will slash the risk of colon cancer and dementia.
Still, not everyone who could benefit from aspirin takes it, says Charles Hennekens, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Miami and the lead author of a groundbreaking 1988 study that confirmed aspirin's role in preventing heart attack. "One of the reasons that people don't take it seriously is because it's available over-the-counter," he says. "Maybe if it was more expensive, people would take it seriously."
"Everyone should consider taking a statin," says Peter Salgo, M.D., an internist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. "I don't think we should put them in drinking water, but if you give statins to people who are at relatively low risk for heart attack, their risk goes down even further. At the very least, you'll have fewer heart attacks and likely fewer deaths in the general population. And statins, over many years, have proven to be well tolerated, low-risk and highly beneficial."
In his new book, The Heart of the Matter, Salgo also suggests that adults take a short course of antibiotics to reduce the risk of a heart attack caused by Chlamydia pneumoniae (which isn't the same as the sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis). Studies have shown that people who have had heart attacks often carry this bacterium, which causes inflammation in the coronary artery walls.
While an association between antichlamydia antibiotics and a reduced incidence of heart attack has yet to be confirmed, the evidence is strong enough for people to ask their doctors for a one-time, two-to-three-week course to protect themselves, says Salgo. Such a short course shouldn't aggravate the growing problem of drug resistance, he adds.
"There is all this suggestive evidence that Chlamydia pneumoniae can cause heart disease," he says. "Suppose that's right and you treat it with an antibiotic. You may have just saved your life."
While these suggestions sound sensible, they may be premature. "The scientific data to support the use of statins in healthy people at low risk for heart disease isn't conclusive," says Rose Marie Robertson, M.D., chief scientific officer for the American Heart Association. "Before you take any medication, it's important to recognize that there are risks and benefits to everything. The best thing is to work with your caregiver to find out what your individual risks are. As for antibiotics, there really isn't enough good scientific data to support this recommendation."
it all started with aspirin
No prevention drug has the cachet of aspirin. A small daily dose of aspirin--75 to 325 milligrams--is now widely accepted as a sound strategy for cutting the risk of heart attack by as much as 44 percent, primarily by preventing the blood from clotting and/or reducing the body's inflammatory response. Aspirin has also been proven to reduce the risk of stroke, and studies are underway to see if it will slash the risk of colon cancer and dementia.
Still, not everyone who could benefit from aspirin takes it, says Charles Hennekens, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Miami and the lead author of a groundbreaking 1988 study that confirmed aspirin's role in preventing heart attack. "One of the reasons that people don't take it seriously is because it's available over-the-counter," he says. "Maybe if it was more expensive, people would take it seriously."
