According to researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), increasing the dose of niacin to patients with heart disease who are already taking a cholesterol-lowering statin does nothing extra to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Approximately one out of seven Americans have high blood cholesterol, a main risk factor in heart disease, which kills some 800,000 people in the United States annually.
This new study may change the method of doctors treating millions of patients with cardiovascular disease feel experts. The NIH stopped a study with Abbott Laboratories' cholesterol fighter Niaspan 18 months early after results showed the drug wasn't successful in preventing heart attacks and may even have increased stroke risk.
The trial had enrolled 3,414 participants in the U.S. and Canada with a history of heart disease who were taking a statin drug to keep their LDL cholesterol low. Niacin, or vitamin B3, is taken to assist other cholesterol lowering drugs to decrease blood levels of triglycerides and LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. It is also used to boost levels of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol. Statins are drugs used to treat high cholesterol by limiting the body's production of it.
Results shocked the researchers who found that when patients also took high dose, extended-release niacin, there was no additional drop in heart disease or stroke. However, some said they wouldn't discard their longstanding belief in targeting HDL. Doctors also say Niaspan decreases the risk of pancreatitis.
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