‘Pairing meds helps lower bad cholesterol’

Lucknow: To effectively lower LDL cholesterol, often called ‘bad cholesterol' as it is a major risk factor for heart disease and strokes, experts emphasised that combining medications is more effective than relying on just one.Dr Kaushik Ray, a cardiologist at Imperial College London, recently shared strategies for managing cholesterol. Dr Ray explained that the most used medication for lowering LDL cholesterol helps only about 1 in 5 people reach their cholesterol goals. To improve results, doctors often add a second medication, which helps another 1 in 5 people. This combination brings the total number of patients reaching their target cholesterol levels to about 50%.For patients who still struggle to lower their cholesterol, Dr Ray suggested adding a third medication that works in the liver and doesn't cause the muscle pain sometimes seen with statins, or PCSK9 inhibitors, injections that help the body remove more LDL cholesterol from the blood.Instead of just increasing the dose of a single drug, Dr Ray emphasised that combining medications is a more effective. tnn
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