November 10th, 2008
Take the CRP in my blood down, or the new statin dance
Turns out statins are not just about the cholesterol count.
It’s also about a protein called C-reactive Protein or CRP. (Right, sport. The CRP in your blood.)
It’s a common protein in plasma, and it deals with inflammation throughout the body. (CRP illustration from Wikimedia.)
Many people with low cholesterol have heart attacks anyway, and a drug trial known as JUPITER, bankrolled by a statin maker, found that reducing CRP levels actually cut risks of a stroke or other other coronary event by half.
The 17,802 people studied were in middle-age, had LDL levels under 130, and a high-sensitivity CRP level of 2.0 mg. per liter or more. Half got the statin, in this case Crestor or rosuvastatin, half got a placebo. The study was due to last five years.
JUPITERÂ was stopped after one year because the numbers were so stark and it was concluded that withholding the statin from the placebo group was ethically unfair.
The study leader, Dr. Paul Ridker, wrote that if this screening and treatment regimen became normal practice it could save 250,000 lives per year.
The NEJM is now soliciting comments, through November 26, from physicians on whether these results will change their practice.
You can demand the change yourself by using this simple request. Check the CRP in my blood and take it down, doc. It’s the new statin dance that’s going to be sweeping the country clubs.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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