Saturday 19 July 2014
Forty per cent of adults advised to take statins under new NHS guidance
‘Forty per cent of adults will be advised to take statins under new NHS guidance which aims to cut 50,000 deaths a year from strokes and heart attacks.
New guidelines from health watchdogs mean that the majority of men aged over 60 and women over 65 will now be offered the drugs, even if they only have a one in 10 chance of developing cardiovascular disease within 10 years.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has cut the “risk threshold” for cholesterol-beating statins in half, meaning than an extra 4.5 million people in England will now qualify for medication.’
