Patent ID: 7005428

Claim:
A method of treating or reducing the risk of acquiring hypercholesterolemia comprising administering to a patient in need of such treatment or reduction a therapeutically effective amount of a sex steroid precursor selected from the group consisting of dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate, androst-5-ene-3β,17β-diol and a compound converted in vivo to one of the foregoing, and further comprising administering to said patient a therapeutically effective amount of a selective estrogen receptor modulator as part of a combination therapy, wherein said selective estrogen receptor modulator is a benzopyran derivative of the following general structure: wherein D is —OCH 2 CH 2 N(R 3 )R 4 (R 3 and R 4 either being independently selected from the group consisting of C 1 -C 4 alkyl, or R 3 , R 4 and the nitrogen atom to which they are bound together being a ring structure selected from the group consisting of pyrrolidino, dimethyl-1-pyrrolidino, methyl-1-pyrrolidinyl, piperidino, hexamethyleneimino and morpholino); and wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxyl and a moiety converted in vivo in to hydroxyl, and wherein a beneficial effect of said combination exceeds by a statistically significant margin, a beneficial effect from either said precursor or said selective estrogen receptor modulator alone.