What happened in the JUPITER study?
The JUPITER study enrolled nearly 18,000 apparently healthy men and women at a median age of 66. They did not have high cholesterol; their median LDL cholesterol level was 108. That’s within the range considered “acceptable” by the American Heart Association. However, these men and women had relatively high blood levels of CRP, a protein linked to inflammation. Inflammation plays a major role in cholesterol-linked narrowing of arteries and in the deadly bursting of cholesterol plaques in arterial walls. Studies suggest that people with CRP levels higher than 3 milligrams per liter have more than twice the risk of heart disease as do people with CRP levels of 1 milligram per liter or lower. JUPITER study participants had a median CRP level over 4 milligrams per liter (and all had CRP levels of 2 milligrams per liter or higher). Even so, under current treatment guidelines most doctors would not recommend statin treatment for such patients. Half the study participants received the statin
