LONDON (Reuters) - Cholesterol-lowering drugs could help to prevent
diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart
attack or stroke even if their cholesterol level is not high, scientists
said on Tuesday.

Millions of patients around the world are prescribed the drugs, known as
statins, to reduce their cholesterol, but an international team of
researchers said an even bigger group of people would benefit from the
treatment.

"What we have shown is that the key thing is to find people who are at risk
of coronary heart disease or stroke and treat them with a regimen that
reduces LDL cholesterol substantially," said Dr Colin Baigent, an
epidemiologist at Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC), who co-
ordinated the study.

LDL, or bad cholesterol, deposits fat in the arteries while HDL, or good
cholesterol, carries it away.

Baigent said lowering LDL with a statin could cut the risk of a heart
attack or stroke by as much as a third.

"The size of the reduction in the risk of major vascular events -- coronary
heart disease or stroke -- is proportional to the size of the absolute
reduction in LDL cholesterol," he explained.

Pfizer's     Lipitor, Merck's Zocor and AstraZeneca's Crestor are among the
leading statins. The drugs lower cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme that
controls how much is produced in the body.

A raised cholesterol level, along with smoking, diabetes, high blood
pressure and being overweight or obese, is a risk factor for heart disease,
one of the biggest killers in Western countries.

The researchers studied the results of 14 previous trials involving statin
treatment in 90,000 people. In addition to high-risk patients with low
cholesterol showing positive results, they said people who had the largest
reduction in their cholesterol level reaped the highest benefit.

Professor Anthony Keech, of the National Health Medical Research Council at
the University of Sydney, who co-ordinated the study team in Australia,
said the size of the cholesterol cut was important.

"So, bigger cholesterol reductions with more intensive treatment regimens
should lead to great benefits," he said in a statement.

Baigent said the scientists found no evidence of an increased risk of
cancer or that very low cholesterol levels were associated with increased
odds of suffering from other diseases.

He said higher doses of statins were associated with a raised risk of
serious muscle problems but that this was very rare.

Bayer AG's) cholesterol drug Baycol was pulled from the market in 2001
after being linked to dozens of deaths.

"When we have patients who have a very high risk of heart disease or stroke
then the size of the benefits far outweighs any risks," Baigent added.