THEcholesterol the lower the better. Yet for those suffering from hypercholesterolemia, the holidays we have just left behind can constitute a danger. In fact, at Christmas, cholesterol can increase significantly, up to a fifth. One proved it study conducted byUniversity of Copenhagen and published in the magazine Atherosclerosis, which involved around 25 thousand Danes. The result? After the holidays, cholesterol it rises by 20% for 9 out of 10 people. So what to do? We asked the experts at SIC, Italian Society of Cardiology.
Cholesterol: how holidays affect it
«The Danish study shows that Cholesterol levels are affected by fatty food that we consume during the Christmas holidays, from the leftovers that we eat the following days and from the New Year’s and Epiphany dinners and lunches”, explains the Professor Ciro Indolfi, past-President of the SIC and professor of Cardiology at the“Magna Grecia” University of Catanzaro. Anyone who hasn’t anticipated it is best to take action. “If we’re not careful, these back-to-back binges could happen impact your health and increase the risk of heart disease. For this reason, adopting measures to keep cholesterol under control could help you have better control over your cardiovascular health”, continues the expert.
Watch out for LDL
“The LDL cholesterol is a substance produced by the liver and present in the blood. It is necessary, among other things, to form cell walls and provide energy to muscles. However, by accumulating in the arteries it can trigger inflammatory reactions which lead to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques which can then occlude coronary and cerebral vessels, causing cardiovascular events serious. Today we know that LDL is the most important value to control, and the lower it is, the better. If already present in limit values, even a small increase can influence the risk of developing heart attacks and strokes”, underlines the Professor Pasquale Perrone FilardiPresident of SIC and director of the School of Specialization in Diseases of the Cardiovascular System ofFederico II University of Naples.
Cholesterol: new therapies
The health challenge consists in increasing adherence to therapy with drugs to be taken at increasingly longer intervals, effective and safe. A crucial question if you consider that up to 50% of patients abandon therapy with statins one year after prescription. Furthermore, the vast majority of Italians over 50 present values well above the recommended ones. These are responsible for approximately 50,000 deaths per year, with healthcare spending reaching 16 billion for direct and indirect costs. A prospect of improvement comes from new mRNA drug, available in Italy for just over a year, due to the first efficacy data recorded by Cholinet. This is an Italian multicenter study, the first and largest ever carried out on the safety and effectiveness of Inclisiranthe new molecule capable of “turning off” the mRNA that carries useful information to PCSK9 proteinimplicated in the transport and destruction of receptors that capture cholesterol.
The Italian study
The investigation conducted in 30 Italian centers by the research group led by Professor Pasquale Perrone Filardi, involved 311 patients followed in outpatient clinic for one year. They were given the first dose of the new drug in addition to standard oral therapy. «The enrolled patients, at the time of the first administration, had cholesterol values LDL averaged 112 mg/dl and they achieved 50 mg/dl at the first check-up at 3 months. They therefore present one average reduction in cholesterol levels by 55% which remained stable until the last observation at 10 months, with one record 100% adherence to therapy. This can be explained by the low amount of side effects compared to statins and a less demanding method of administration, with two subcutaneous injections per year instead of one pill a day”, concludes Professor Perrone Filardi.
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