Starting Statins: New Guidelines Aim at Prevention but Create More Patients
Designed to prevent heart disease earlier, new guidelines ask for more testing and nuanced decisions–often in visits too short to fully weigh the trade-offs.
You can now be treated for heart disease decades before you have symptoms.
You go in for a routine physical, feeling healthy. Your cholesterol comes back a little high—not alarming, just above the cutoff. In the past, your doctor might have said, “Let’s recheck next year.”
