{"id":246687,"date":"2026-11-05T22:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T04:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/stronger-cholesterol-treatment-shrinks-more-plaque-in-heart-arteries-new-clinical-trial-finds"},"modified":"2026-11-05T22:06:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T04:06:45","slug":"stronger-cholesterol-treatment-shrinks-more-plaque-in-heart-arteries-new-clinical-trial-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/stronger-cholesterol-treatment-shrinks-more-plaque-in-heart-arteries-new-clinical-trial-finds","title":{"rendered":"Stronger cholesterol treatment shrinks more plaque in heart arteries, new clinical trial finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Atherosclerosis is a condition in which cholesterol and fat gradually accumulate inside the walls of medium and large arteries, forming a sticky deposit called plaque. As these deposits grow, they narrow the arteries, restricting the flow of oxygen-rich blood to vital tissues and organs. Over time, this buildup can lead to ischemic heart disease (IHD) or stroke. In a recent randomized <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamacardiology\/article-abstract\/2856138\" target=\"_blank\">clinical trial called FLOWPROMOTE<\/a>, researchers present a strategy to reverse atherosclerosis partially.<\/p>\n<p>They tested whether aggressively lowering bad cholesterol in newly diagnosed patients using cholesterol-lowering statins can shrink and reverse plaque buildup in heart arteries. Over an 18-month treatment period, participants either took atorvastatin 40 mg daily, a standard high-dose statin, or rosuvastatin 40 mg plus <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2025-03-thousands-combining-cholesterol-lowering-drugs.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">ezetimibe<\/a> 10 mg daily, a stronger statin combined with a medicine that blocks cholesterol absorption in the gut.<\/p>\n<p>Plaque buildup in the heart\u2019s arteries isn\u2019t necessarily a point of no return because bringing cholesterol levels down aggressively can actually make existing plaques shrink. With combination therapy, 90% of patients saw their plaque volume decrease, compared with 75% on standard treatment. The findings are published in JAMA Cardiology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atherosclerosis is a condition in which cholesterol and fat gradually accumulate inside the walls of medium and large arteries, forming a sticky deposit called plaque. As these deposits grow, they narrow the arteries, restricting the flow of oxygen-rich blood to vital tissues and organs. Over time, this buildup can lead to ischemic heart disease (IHD) [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}