Health: Why Some Statins Work Better

A trial of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor last March found that high doses lowered patients' levels of LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) and also reduced their heart-attack risk. That's why the results of a new study on similarly high doses of the statin Zocor are so disappointing. In the 4,500patient study, published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients taking high doses of Zocor fared no better than a low-dose group in terms of heart-attack risk, despite low LDL levels. Why? Perhaps because Lipitor works not just by lowering cholesterol but also by reducing inflammation, something Zocor can't do as well.