Doctors didn’t know for sure if treating inflammation might prevent people from getting a heart condition, the generally being caused by other factors, like diabetes or high blood pressure. On the other hand, most heart attacks occurred in people with normal cholesterol levels and not linked with any conditions mentioned above.

Researchers have come to believe that inflammation might actually have a role to play in heart disease and that preventing and treating inflammation might result in lower people suffering from heart disease. If in fact treating inflammation, which is known from attracting plaques in the blood arteries, proves to be an efficient method of preventing heart disease, more people may be protected from having a heart attack.

A recent study, conducted on 18,000 people, shows that a drug used for lowering cholesterol levels might also help people that don’t have cholesterol issues, but are predisposed to heart problems. The study was conducted by treating 9,000 people with the cholesterol-lowering statin Crestor and the other 9,000 people being treated with placebos. It should be noted that none of the participants had raised cholesterol levels and none of them were suffering from clear factors that could have induced heart problems.

The results could only be described as remarkable, as the people treated with Crestin over a period of two years showed better results than the ones treated with the placebo.

The results showed that the people getting Crestin had a 50% lower risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke and a 205 lower risk of dying from a heart condition, in comparison with the people getting placebos.