Statin guidelines change, but your doctor may not go along

By Will Boggs MD NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – New guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association would change the way doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowing statin drugs, but not every doctor agrees with the new strategy. Under the old guidelines, the statin dose depended on how much it took to get a person’s blood cholesterol levels into a certain target range. Under the new guidelines, which were issued last year, once someone qualifies for statin therapy, the dose should be determined by the person’s risk of cardiovascular disease and not according to how cholesterol levels respond to treatment.