Cholesterol Busting Drugs Bad For Health

Millions of people worldwide take cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins to prevent heart attacks and strokes but a new study questions whether they actually work.

Hailed as 'wonder pills' by doctors and drug companies, other new evidence has linked statins with severe depression and suicide.

Statins are prescribed to anyone who is believed to have more than a 20 per cent chance of a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years, reports the Daily Mail .

It is hoped that, by lowering their cholesterol, the patients' death risk will drop significantly.

A new study by the Johns Hopkins University, US, however, suggests a great many people may not benefit from statins - that's because it's our calcium levels, not cholesterol, that really matter.

Their study of 950 men and women found that statins may only help patients if they have a calcium build-up or calcification in their blood vessels, according to a Hopkins's statement.

Calcium makes arteries harden and increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Scientists believe calcification is primarily caused by a combination of genes and ageing, along with poor lifestyle such as lack of exercise, bad diet and smoking.

Michael Blaha of Hopkins, who led the study, said: "Our results tell us that only those with calcium build-up in their arteries have a clear benefit from statin therapy."

These findings were presented at the American Heart Association earlier this month.

New, Anti-AIDS Drug Goes After Virus

German scientists have discovered a substance known as a peptide that thwarts the AIDS virus and causes far fewer side-effects than existing anti-HIV drugs, they said Wednesday.

The breakthrough was reported in the science journal Science Translational Medicine after it had been tested on 18 AIDS patients.

But the scientists at Hanover university hospital or MHH in northern Germany said they have yet to find a way to put the substance, VIR-576, in a pill. All the test patients received it as an intravenous drip.

Variants of the new therapy could also be devised to fight measles, hepatitis C and Ebola disease, they said.

VIR-576 is a protein that smothers human immunodeficiency virus, stopping it docking with cells in the human body.

"It is a completely new therapy approach which we hope will reduce side effects," said Reinhold E Schmidt of MHH. Other existing medicines offered since the mid-1990s work by proofing cells of the body against the virus.

"Our peptide works on the virus, not on the cells, so some of the side-effects won't happen at all," he said.

Current anti-AIDS medications ensure an almost normal life span for HIV-infected people but raise the risk of strokes and liver damage. VIR-576 caused some diarrhea, but no other major side effects, the tests suggested.

Schmidt cautioned that it could take years before VIR-576 was available from pharmacies as a medicine.