Cardiologists Recommend Americans Take More Cholesterol Drugs

Looking to double the rate

Dramatically escalating the fight against heart attacks and strokes, the nation's cardiologists have rewritten the guidebook on how Americans should be treated with statins and unveiled a plan that could double the number of patients taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs to about 70 million.

The new approach, presented Tuesday by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Assn., represents a stark shift from the way doctors have prescribed the popular drugs for most of the last decade.