🕗 Single-Pill Solution Could Reduce Cholesterol by 80% Ep. 282

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Cardiologist Dr. Michael Koren joins Kevin Geddings to discuss progress in the world of cholesterol management. Dr. Koren explains the importance of getting cholesterol - especially LDL cholesterol - under control and the potential benefits to heart attack and stroke risk. They discuss some of the problems with current therapies; they are highly effective but can introduce burdens to patients with the back-and-forth for multiple medications. Dr. Koren then reveals new medicatiosn being studied which may combine multiple cholesterol medications into a single pill, reducing barriers and  potentially improving outcomes.

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Music: Storyblocks - Corporate Inspired

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Episode Transcript

Announcer (00:00):
Welcome to the MedEvidence! Monday Minute Radio
Show hosted by Kevin Gettingsof WSOS St Augustine Radio and
powered by Encore Research Group.
Each Monday morning, dr MichaelKoren calls in to bring you the
latest medical updates withinsightful discussions.
MedEvidence! is where we helpyou navigate the real truth
behind medical research, withboth a clinical and research

(00:20):
perspective.
So sit back, relax and getready to learn about The Truth
Behind The Data in medicine andhealthcare.
This is MedEvidence!

Kevin Geddings, WSOS (00:30):
We are joined live on the studio line
by Dr.
Michael Koren.
He's a big part of our familyhere at WSOS.
He's a medical doctor,cardiologist, research scientist
and we appreciate him takingtime out of his day.
And, for those of you that aredealing with cholesterol issues,
some of us are at differentstages of that issue, but there
may be some exciting news on thehorizon.

(00:50):
Right, Dr.
Koren.

Dr. Michael Koren (00:52):
There is Good morning, Kevin, thanks for
having me, as usual and let'stalk a little bit today about
getting your cholesterol down.
So we all know that lower isbetter.
When we treat cholesterol, andparticularly we treat something
called LDL cholesterol or thebad cholesterol, which is a
lipoprotein, meaning acombination of a protein and a

(01:14):
fat, we know that people thathave had a heart attack or a
stroke should have their LDLcholesterol way below 70, in
fact, ideally below 50.
And people who have riskfactors for heart disease should
certainly be in the range of 70to 100.
Unfortunately, a lot of peoplerequire more than one medication

(01:35):
to get there.
So the standard treatment is astatin drug.
You've heard of them Lipitor,Zocor, Crestor.
These drugs are now generic,they're inexpensive, they work
well.
They get your LDL down to maybeabout half of what it was
previously, sometimes only about40%, but sometimes people have
side effects related to thestatin so they can't take them

(01:57):
at the full dose.
Then we have this other class ofdrugs that are called PCSK9
inhibitors, and these drugs arenow injectable drugs that will
lower your cholesterol,particularly your LDL, by 50 to
60% on top of what a statin drugdoes.
So in combination, thisconnection between the PCSK9

(02:19):
drugs and the statin drugs ishighly effective and gets people
down maybe 70% or 80% whenusing combination.
But unfortunately this is wheresome of the old-school medicine
concepts have kind of notexactly worked, as we have
transferred to a new era wherewe're doing things

(02:40):
electronically.
So back in the old days I knowyou recall this you went to your
doctor.
Your doctor gave you a piece ofpaper that told you what to do.
You brought that to thepharmacy and you got your
medicine.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS (02:50):
Right.

Dr. Michael Koren (02:51):
And nowadays, you know, all this is done
electronically and what we'reseeing is, instead of people
coming back in three months withtheir new prescription
especially their fancy usuallyexpensive injectable drug we're
seeing that they come back andthey're really not where they
should be in terms of their LDLcholesterol.

(03:11):
So this got everybody thinking,well, how are we going to make
this better?
Well, one of the ways to makethis better is eventually having
a single pill that will combinea statin with a PCSK9 drug, and
that single pill could loweryour cholesterol by 70 or 80%
from the get-go.
And imagine if we can do that inthe old school way where we're

(03:32):
actually just giving this pillto somebody after they're
diagnosed with high cholesterolin our offices and they get
started immediately, rather thanhaving to go through sort of
the electronic pre-approvalrigmarole.
So, as an important steptowards this end, I'm making a
fairly large presentation at theAmerican College of Cardiology

(03:53):
meeting next week in Chicago,talking about a new product that
we work with in development innortheast Florida that can help
people achieve just what I said.
So it's a pill that can be usedin combination with a statin
that will get people to acholesterol level of 70 or 80
percent lower than where theystarted.

(04:13):
And imagine if we're able to dothis in a way so that people
don't have to go through therigmarole of going through
preauthorizations, et cetera, etcetera.
Now again, this is just thefirst step in the whole process,
but this shows you what we doin research and people can sort
of access this process waybefore it's approved by the FDA
by being part of our researchstudies.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS (04:35):
Yeah, pretty exciting stuff.
So if folks are listeningdriving around this morning, Dr.
Koren and they have had anissue with cholesterol, whether
they're currently maintainingwith maybe a regular dose of
Lipitor or something else,something generic, who are the
folks that should be reallyinterested in this development?
I guess it would be a degree ofcholesterol challenge.

Dr. Michael Koren (04:56):
Yeah, anybody who has been told that their
cholesterol is not controlled,people who want to get very
aggressive at controlling thisrisk factor and, by the way,
controlling your LDL cholesterolis the risk factor mechanism
that has been proven over andover and over again to result in
f ewer heart attacks andstrokes.

(05:20):
So that's what we just saylower is better.
And that's a simple messagethat helps people understand
that getting that LDLcholesterol down to below 50, if
you've had a heart attack orstroke, or between 70 and 100,
if you're just trying to preventa heart attack and stroke is a
really important message and, aspart of the clinical research
process, we can help peopleachieve those goals.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS (05:37):
Okay, Folks listening and they've been
told that their cholesterolneeds to be better controlled or
lowered.
There are opportunities,obviously, for them to
participate in leading clinicalresearch right here in St.
John's County in NortheastFlorida, right.

Dr. Michael Koren (05:51):
Absolutely.
We have a number of studiesthat are looking at actually
different products to achievethis goal under different
circumstances.
Some apply to patients withdiabetes, Some of them apply to
patients who have had a heartattack before or a stroke before
, and some of them apply topeople that are without previous

(06:12):
medical history but that stillwant to get their LDL
cholesterol way down.
So we have different programsfor different people and we're
more than happy to look at eachof the people that may be
listening to our conversationand finding out if there's a
role for them in one of theclinical trials that we're
currently conducting.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS (06:29):
Super easy to learn more and to get
involved, and there's no highpressure in this just a nice
casual conversation to figureout if you want to do this, if
you might be eligible.
A couple of ways you can connectwith, of course, Dr.
Koren and his great team herelocally.
Go to EncoreDocs.
com.
That's E-N-C-O-R-E.
Encoredocs.

(06:50):
com.
You can also call their officehere locally, 904-730-0166.
I'll give you that number again.
You can punch it into your cellphone, 904-730-0166.
And of course they have officesright here in St.

(07:10):
Augustine and St.
John's County, next to UFFlagler Hospital in the
Whetstone Building.
And, Dr.
Koren, before I let you go,definitely want to do a shout
out for a great website you'revery involved in, with wonderful
content, easy to useMedEvidence.
com.
Explain to our listeners whatthat website's all about.

Dr. Michael Koren (07:27):
That's our platform for people to
understand The Truth Behind TheData, so people are giving me
really positive feedback aboutit.
It's actually very gratifyingto hear people say hey I used to
.
Google things and I wasn't clearwhich way I should go, since

(07:48):
when I Googled things I saw twocompletely different approaches
to my problem.
But with MedEvidence people aregetting a more comprehensive
look through a discussionbetween two knowledgeable
physicians and with that peoplecan make their own decision
based on their individualcircumstances and based on
actually having the data andhaving doctors explain why

(08:09):
there's not always one rightanswer or another, but in fact
there's a right answer for eachindividual based on their
individual circumstances.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS (08:17):
Yeah, there's great information that's
available in a variety offormats, you know, so you can
watch short videos.
We have podcasts.
It's good information and youcan trust it, unlike what you're
going to get if you just Googlea health topic or you just go
on Facebook or, you know, seesomething on Instagram.
So we highly encourage you toonce again take a look at that
website.
Share with others too who areinterested in health information

(08:39):
.
Medevidence.
com.
That's MedEvidence.
com.
Dr.
Koren, we appreciate you takingtime out today.
We hope you have a good rest ofthe day.

Dr. Michael Koren (08:47):
I appreciate it Always good talking to you.

Announcer (08:50):
Kevin, thanks for joining the MedEvidence! podcast
.
To learn more, head over toMedEvidence.
com or subscribe to our podcaston your favorite podcast
platform.