Lipid Lowering Therapy

Lipid Lowering Therapy | Reducing the risk of Cardiovascular Disease

The health centre is constantly reviewing updates and guidelines, to ensure all our patients are getting the best possible and up to date care.

We may have contacted you because your medical records show that you would benefit from starting Lipid Lowering Therapy to help reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, that can cause heart attacks and strokes. Lipid Lowering Therapy consists of two tablets: Statins and an alternative drug called Ezetimibe.

It is proven that these tablets do reduce cholesterol levels, however new research shows that fewer patients develop cardiovascular disease if they take a statin/Ezetemibe daily, (even if your cholesterol levels are within a normal range). Cholesterol levels are just one factor of developing Cardiovascular disease, and there are many other factors that can increase the risk of heart disease such as certain health conditions, our age, smoking status and blood pressure.

The risk of Lipid Lowering Therapy is negligible, and genuine side affects are actually very rare. We start all patients on a standard dose and after 3 months we will need to book you in for a blood test. We will then review patients with these results as in some instances some patients may benefit from being put onto a higher dose.
We want to give you as much information as possible to help you decide if this is something you would like to try. Please see the links below with more information regarding Lipid Lowering Therapy.

Many of our patients may benefit from these preventative tablets, however unfortunately we do not have capacity to offer everybody an individual appointment to discuss it. That being said, should you have specific questions, please email our Care Coordinator team here: bobicb-ox.schc_care_coordinators@nhs.net , and we will either provide you with an answer or make an appointment with the most appropriate member of the team.

Your sincerely

The GP partners

More information surrounding Lipid Lowering Therapy:

The British Heart Foundation – Information on Statins 

NICE Guidance on Statin Therapy

Heart Charity UK – Questions about statins 

Ezetimibe – NHS guidance