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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2004;292:911-913.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Got that cholesterol level down to recommended levels? That's good—but now you should lower it even more.

That is the message sent last month by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) in an update of existing guidelines. The update's primary focus is the need to aggressively reduce the blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)—the "bad" cholesterol—through lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise and, if needed, with drugs such as statins (Circulation. 2004;110:227-239).

The recommendations were created by a working group of NCEP's Adult Treatment Panel III and are a refinement to guidelines issued in 2001 (JAMA. 2001;285:2486-2497).

A particular concern of the working group is the need to drastically lower LDL-C levels in individuals at very high risk for myocardial infarction and death from cardiovascular disease. The NCEP said that for patients in these groups, an optional therapeutic target level for LDL-C is . . . [Full Text of this Article]