review the treatments and rationale below. Do you agree or disagree? Why? What information from this weeks content or outside information can you cite to support your opinions?
The purpose of this discussion is to assess how a provider should council a 53 year old patient that has not been diagnosed with diabetes, has an LDL score of 170 mg/L, and has an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease calculated risk score of 8. According to the National Vascular Disease Prevention alliance, a risk score of 8 suggests there is a minimal chance that a person will develop cardiovascular disease in the next 5 years (What does your risk score mean, 2012). Current recommendations also state that adults 40 to 75 without diabetes, an LDL score above 70, and a cardiovascular risk score over 7.5% should be started on a moderate statin (Pignone, 2021). Thus, one drug to initiate includes Simvastatin, 20 mg daily. After educating this patient on the side effects, administration, and purpose, I would arrange a follow up in six to eight weeks to re-check levels (Pignone, 2021). In addition to pharmacologic therapy, non-pharmacologic treatments include lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet (full of fruits, vegetables, and fibers) and exercise (moderate intensity 150 minutes per week) (Hennekens, 2021). At this time, the patient would not need to be referred or any diagnostics. Thus, this patient should be referred to start on a statin with lifestyle changes.
