---
title: "Vytorin and Other Headlines: What’s a Patient to Do?"
url: https://seconds-count.org/blog/vytorin-and-other-headlines/
description: "Physicians' Blog post from the January 2008 archive of Seconds-Count.org, reproduced from the file."
---

# Vytorin and Other Headlines: What’s a Patient to Do?

[‹ Return to the January 2008 archive](https://seconds-count.org/blog/)

Posted under General by admin on Thursday, January 17, 2008

In the source’s own words

That’s precisely what you, as a patient, should do when you hear news about a medical therapy that may affect you – talk to your doctor about what it means for you.

The recent news about a cholesterol-lowering drug called Vytorin is a good case study for how you, as a patient, should respond to what you read or hear in the news about your prescribed medical therapy.

A 720-patient study called ENHANCE, released this week, showed that Vytorin, a one-pill combination of a statin called Zocor and a non-statin called Zetia, was no better than Zocor alone in keeping fatty plaque from building up in the arteries in the neck. Zetia lowers cholesterol levels by decreasing the amount of cholesterol in your diet that gets into your system, and is often prescribed for patients for whom statins alone do not reduce cholesterol to the desired levels.

The announcement of the study results prompted a flood of calls to doctors from worried Vytorin patients. That’s precisely what you, as a patient, *should* do when you hear news about a medical therapy that may affect you – talk to your doctor about what it means for you.

What worries me is that the news often generated from medical studies can create panic. Some patients might stop taking their prescribed medications because they are scared by the news they hear without consulting their doctor. You should *never* stop taking any medication without first consulting your doctor.

1/17/2008 The source archive page carried a “Read all” link; the remainder of this post was not and has not been reconstructed.

[‹ Return to the January 2008 archive](https://seconds-count.org/blog/)

## Post record

Original permalink: `/blog/?p=11`

Source file: `blog/index.html`

Comment count recorded in the source: 3 comments

Original date: Thursday, January 17, 2008

## About this archive

These pages reproduce what survived in the site backup of seconds-count.org: one 2007 homepage and one January 2008 monthly archive from the Physicians’ Blog.

[Read the full archive note](https://seconds-count.org/about/)

## Source and dating

Homepage source: `index.html`, headlines dated 8/21/2007 to 10/28/2007.

Blog source: `blog/index.html`, four posts dated 1/17/2008 to 1/31/2008.

Reviewed on this archive: 2007–2008 text, reproduced unchanged.

## Blog categories

- [Cardiac CT](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#cardiac-ct)
- [Children](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#children)
- [General](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#general)
- [Heart Disease](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#heart-disease)
- [Heparin](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#heparin)
- [Minimally Invasive](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#minimally-invasive)
- [Statins](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#statins)
- [Stents](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#stents)
- [Stroke](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#stroke)
- [Women](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#women)

## Blog archive months

archive labels; only January 2008 survived with post content.

- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- [January 2008](https://seconds-count.org/blog/)
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007

## Editorial and source policy

Every line of text on this site is reproduced from the 2007–2008 files. Nothing has been added, updated, expanded or re-worded.

This site is a historical archive of pages published at seconds-count.org in 2007 and 2008. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions or any other medical society, certifying board, hospital or health authority. The reference to SCAI above is part of the original 2007 homepage text and describes the site as it stood then, not any current relationship.