The drug Crestor, e new comer designed to lower cholesterol, has also been proven to lower the risk of both heart attacks and strokes, but only in patients with a normal level of cholesterol.

Also, the patients for which Crestor had this particular effect had a particularly high level of inflammation. The level was measured by a marker, called the C-reactive protein (CRP). 18,000 people were involved in this study, conducted by Jupiter and which was published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Upon analyzing the results of the study, it turned out that the patients who took Crestor for a period of time ranging from two to five years had a significantly smaller chance of having a heart attack or a stroke. The risk dropped by 50% during the time they took Crestor. Beside these two affections, patients who took Crestor also registered a smaller risk of having to undergo a bypass surgery or an angioplasty.

It is thought that the result of the study will prompt millions of people, most of which seem healthy, will undergo a screening process to determine their degree of inflammation. The screening entails a blood test and it is called the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP).

As a direct result, many of them will be prescribed statins to reduce the inflammation. Statins, however, are only effective in the case of patients with high cholesterol or an already developed heart disease. In the case of people with a lower risk of developing heart disease, 0.7% of the patients who took statin drugs had either a stroke or a heart attack, as opposed to only 1.5% of patients who had been given placebos.