New Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines, Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking

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Gene Purcell and Rob Ferrett discuss new proposed guidelines for treating high cholesterol, which could dramatically increase statin usage. Then chef and TV personality Lidia Bastianich shares her tips and recipes for commonsense Italian cooking.

Featured in this Show

  • Media Not Getting Key Points Of Heart Report, According To Author

    The American Heart Association issued new heart health guidelines this week, including recommendations on lifestyle, obesity and when to use cholesterol-lowering statin medications. However, a Wisconsin doctor who helped craft these guidelines said some of the key messages have been lost in the media coverage.

    Much of the press stories about the new guidelines has focused on the use of statins, suggesting that the guidelines would lead to a massive increase in the prescription of the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

    Dr. Patrick McBride, a University of Wisconsin professor of medicine, said that these stories doesn’t tell all the information. He said there would be more aggressive use of statins for people with heart-risk factors, including obesity, genetic predisposition and diabetes — and the threshold for that risk is lower than it used to be.

    However, he said some lower-risk patients who currently take the drugs might be able to stop taking them.

    “We wanted to make sure that … the people with the greatest risk got treatment,” he said.

    McBride said some media coverage suggested that there were hard and fast guidelines on the use of statins: People with one set of numbers should take the drugs, another set should not. The reality, he said, is that each patient is a unique case, and that the guidelines are meant to help doctors and patients assess various risk factors.

    “In the end, the decision about treatment is between a patient and their doctor,” he said.

    McBride said the report includes more than just recommendations about prescription drugs. It also offers guidelines on lifestyle, nutrition and exercise. He said healthy diet and exercise are a vital part of heart health, especially for people in high-risk categories.

    “Somebody can’t be on statins and have poor exercise and nutrition” to maintain heart health, he said.

    McBride encourages patients and doctors to read the new guidelines when assessing heart health risk and treatment; they’re available at www.heart.org.

  • New Guidelines For Cholesterol Treatment Could Increase Statin Usage

    The nation’s leading heart health organizations released new guidelines yesterday that would change the way doctors assess and treat cardiovascular risk. A doctor who helped develop the guideline talks about why they’re needed, and how statins are involved.

  • Lidia's Commonsense Italian Cooking

    Celebrity chef and restauranteur Lidia Bastianich owns four restaurants and is the star of her own cooking show on public television. Italian cooking isn’t complicated she says, and she shares her tips for commonsense ITalian cooking.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Gene Purcell Host
  • Patrick McBride Guest
  • Lidia Bastianich Guest
  • Chris Malina Producer
  • Amanda Magnus Producer