A NEW TREATMENT FOR HEART DISEASE

Since the 1950s, medical scientists have understood that high cholesterol can contribute to coronary artery disease (CAD) by clogging the arteries with plaque. More recently, researchers have learnt that chronic inflammation in the arteries can play a role in restricting blood flow, too.

- Samantha Rideout

Now, two large multinational clinical trials have shown that colchicine, a drug that's already used to treat other inflammatory conditions, such as gout, is also useful for preventing heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death in people with CAD.

When added to standard treatments such as statins, it reduced the risk of these complications by as much as 31 per cent. The FDA recently approved low-dose colchicine for this purpose, making it the first medication that tackles cardiovascular disease by specifically targeting inflammation.

A Few Steps Go a Long Way

The more you walk each day, the greater the health benefits. If there is an upper limit to this general rule, it hasn't been determined yet-but the minimum number of steps needed to start making a difference might be lower than previously thought. A Polish- and American-led review of 17 previous studies found that as few as 2,500 steps per day could reduce, by 16 per cent or more, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to walking less. When it comes to prolonging lives, the senior researcher said in a press release, even modest lifestyle changes can be surprisingly powerful.