Understanding the New Prevention Guidelines
The newest heart disease and stroke prevention guidelines for doctors urge them to help you avoid heart disease and stroke by prescribing drugs called statins for some of you, treating obesity as a disease, and giving you other resources to stay healthy. So what does that mean for you? Should you be on statins? Should you change your medications? Should you see a doctor for obesity treatment? How do you know if you’re healthy? These are among the questions you’ll find answers to here on the Guideline Resource Center.
The information on this page should tell you everything you need to know about the cardiovascular prevention guidelines, which were released Nov. 12 by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. These guidelines are basically recommendations for healthcare providers across the nation, created through years of scientific research. The new guidelines focus on the very important areas of obesity, cholesterol, lifestyle and risk assessment. For a simple illustration of the guideline highlights, check out this What Guidelines Mean to You infographic.
Here are some helpful links:
- Video: Understanding the Guidelines: A Conversation With American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown, President Mariell Jessup, M.D., and former President Sid Smith, M.D.
- Video: Former American Heart Association President Gordon Tomaselli, M.D., who served on the volunteer task force overseeing development of the guidelines, answers basic guidelines questions, including what they are, how they were developed and what the big takeaway message is.
- Check out these commonly asked questions and answers that every patient should know about the new guidelines.
- What would your doctor advise you about the guidelines? What should you ask them? Here are some thoughts from healthcare providers who volunteer for the American Heart Association.
- American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown sorts the facts about the guidelines from the myths in her Huffington Post blog
- Here is a story providing a simple overview of each of the four prevention treatment guidelines were released, covering cholesterol, obesity, lifestyle and risk assessment. Here is a look at the highlights of each.
- Here is an easy-to-read story that takes a closer look at the new obesity guideline.
- Here is an easy-to-read story that takes a closer look at the new cholesterol guideline.
- Here is an easy-to-read story that takes a closer look at the new lifestyle guideline.
- Looking for more details on these guidelines? See the links below for the full text of the guidelines as posted in our scientific journal Circulation
- 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Treatment of Blood Cholesterol to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Adults
- 2013 AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk
- 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults
- 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk
- Here is the risk assessment tool your healthcare provider would use under the new guidelines.
Source: American Heart Association