HEART UK Welcome Draft Nice Guidelines On Lipid Modification

HEART UK welcomes the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations published on February 12 which suggest that doctors should consider many more people to be at risk of heart disease, stroke or peripheral arterial disease,
 
May 15, 2014 - PRLog -- In draft guidance issued for public consultation, NICE is recommending that the threshold for starting preventive treatment of these conditions should be halved from a 20% risk of developing CVD over 10 years to a 10% risk, updating its 2008 guidelines on the identification of people at risk of CVD and on the use of lipid lowering drugs to reduce that risk.

HEART UK Head of the Board of Trustees, Dr Robert Cramb, said: “We are pleased to see NICE addressing this important issue which significantly contributes to cardiovascular disease which is such a massive killer in the UK.”

“At HEART UK we encourage a healthy lifestyle that includes quitting smoking, exercising regularly and reducing the overall consumption of foods, but especially those that contain processed saturated fat and refined carbohydrate. HEART UK have always promoted the importance of preventative care as the best way to maintain health and the adoption of a lower threshold that allows the earlier use of therapies that have positive benefits, including the use of statins where appropriate, is a constructive development.

“We know that statins work well even when given in lower doses that are far less likely to cause side effects and the fact that statins will now be available to individuals without the need to be assessed for other risks such as diabetes is another positive step to maintaining the health of the nation.”

“However, we would also urge that more focus needs to be given to specifically find and follow patients and their relatives with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia as defined in NICE guideline CG71 as these patients are more likely to develop CVD at a younger age and have earlier disability and death.”

The draft update of the lipid modification clinical guideline is available to view on the NICE website (http://track.vuelio.uk.com/z.z?l=aHR0cDovL2d1aWRhbmNlLm5p...) and comments on the draft were closed for comment in March 2014 and final guidance is due in July.

People wishing to find out more about raised cholesterol and associated conditions should contact: HEART UK on their helpline – 0845 450 5988, or visit www.heartuk.org.uk

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

HEART UK was formed in 2002 following a merger of The Family Heart Association (FHA) and the British Hyperlipidaemia Association (BHA).

HEART UK is an acronym for Hyperlipidaemia Education & Atherosclerosis Research Trust UK.

HEART UK - The Cholesterol Charity - promotes healthy hearts and better lives by:

·          helping and supporting individuals, families and health professionals to understand and control cholesterol conditions and other heart risks

·          promoting education and research to improve identification, prevention, treatment and care of cholesterol and lipid conditions

·          working in partnership with government, the NHS, industry and other charities

·          promoting best practice in addressing inherited and non-inherited cholesterol conditions

The HEART UK Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Guideline Implementation Team (FHGIT) was formed after the publication of the NICE Guideline on FH in 2008, and aims to help facilitate the implementation of the Guideline’s recommendations.

Six in 10 adults in the UK have raised cholesterol. Over 120,000 people in Britain have a form of inherited high cholesterol called Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) which can cause premature death as those as young as 30 – and only 15% of those with the condition are known.

People wishing to find out more about FH should contact: HEART UK on the helpline – 0845 450 5988 – or visit www.heartuk.org.uk

For media inquiries please contact:

David Alexander, Calacus PR on 07802-412424 or david.alexander@calacus.comOR

Kourtney Shaw, Calacus PR on 07731-769269 or kourtney.shaw@calacus.com

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