| Check your health during Heart Month
February is nationally recognized as American Heart Month, and it is designed to encourage Americans to assess their heart health and make vital lifestyle changes. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, not only greatly increases disability among Americans, but also remains the leading cause of death in the United States.Heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S., accounting for almost 700,000 fatalities each year, a staggering total which makes up 29 percent of all U.S. deaths. There are many different forms of heart disease.The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself. This is called coronary artery disease and happens slowly over time. It is the major reason people have heart attacks.
Abbott wins OK for cholesterol pill
Abbott Laboratories said Friday it won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market Simcor, a combination pill to lower harmful cholesterol and increase the beneficial type. Simcor adds Abbott's Niaspan to a generic version of Merck & Co.'s Zocor. North Chicago-based Abbott is racing Merck & Co. to add medicines boosting so-called good cholesterol to statins such as Zocor, which lower levels of the bad, artery-clogging form of the fatlike protein. Abbott predicts Simcor sales will reach $500 million a year. .
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