2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Treatment of Blood Cholesterol to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Adults

New AHA cholesterol treatment guidelines. I haven't read (and won't soon) but I gather (am told) the American Heart Ass'n now recommends treating higher-risk patients with higher statin doses, lower-risk pts with lower statin doses, not targeting any specific LDL level, and doesn't recommend using non-statin drugs unless patient cannot take statins. This is for commonplace cases of elevated cholesterol, not for severe cases. I doubt doctors will immediately adopt these guidelines, it will probably take years for a consensus.

If you want to read it, the interesting stuff appears to start around p 14. Please post a summary if you do plow through it all.

One other thing, the FDA is getting tougher on approving new lipid-lowering drugs, approval is increasingly likely to require a successful outcomes trial (a large and long clinical trial showing that the drug actually reduces the risk of cardiovascular events or otherwise improves patients' outcomes, rather than simply lowering a lab measurement).