N.H. The vast majority of strokes occur when the vessels providing blood and nutrients to the brain are blocked by cholesterol-laden plaque, which breaks free from the inner lining of the heart s coronary artery.
Heart attacks result when coronary arteries are obstructed by atherosclerosis.
The key point is that if you have a heart attack, you are at high risk of developing a stroke. So it makes sense to be aggressive with a strong drug to lower cholesterol in people who ve had a heart attack or stroke because cholesterol reduction should reduce the amount of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries and in the carotid arteries leading to the brain. The new study expands upon findings from two recent drug trials. These studies examined whether lowering cholesterol in people who survived a first heart attack reduced the risk of a second attack. Both studies did find a reduced heart attack risk and evidence that lowering cholesterol also lowered a survivor s stroke risk.