Illinois Institute of Technology psychology researcher endorses NIH cholesterol guidelines but cautions that younger patients may need more motivation
On May 15, the National Institutes of Health issued new guidelines to lower the nation’s cholesterol. These aggressive new guidelines – the first new guidelines issued by the NIH on cholesterol since 1983 – call for treating high cholesterol with drugs and lifestyle changes earlier and more often. The revised guidelines could push the number of Americans prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication from 13 million to 36 million.
High cholesterol increases the risk of fatty deposits forming in the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks.
Tamara Sher, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Psychology, agrees with the new guidelines, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Sher is an expert on how lifestyle affects health, especially when it comes to heart disease, which can be caused by high blood cholesterol levels.
Sher supports the new guidelines but cautions that they may be hard to follow for people who are prescribed medication before any noticeable disease symptoms have appeared. “When you already had one heart attack, you are pretty motivated to take your medication,” says Sher. “But when you need to take medications to prevent future illness, there may not be that strong motivation and doctors need to address that, perhaps by coaching the couple.”
Sher has studied the affects of being in an intimate relationship on compliance with lifestyle changes, including taking medications. “People in intimate relationships can help their partners make and maintain behavioral lifestyle changes,” Sher explains. “The partner of a cardiac patient can lend crucial support, understanding and encouragement that helps the patient stick to often radical lifestyle changes.”
Sher has a four-year $2.5 million grant from the NIH Heart, Lung & Blood Institute to study the effect of including a partner in lifestyle change programs prescribed to people recovering from cardiac events like heart attacks. She has just completed a pilot study at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in conjunction with Rush cardiologists and psychologists. For the pilot study, Sher recruited couples where one member had experienced a cardiac event in the last six months. These couples were enrolled in an 18-week intervention program where they received counseling on adherence to taking medication, nutrition and exercise. They were also counseled on how to work together to both help the patient maintain changes and support the patient through the process.
“Being part of a couple means that you have a support system in place already,” says Sher. “But each person needs to know how to use that support system, which is where the counseling in my pilot study came in.”
At the end of the pilot study, Sher found that couples enjoyed being a part of the study, developed skills to maintain changes and improved their relationships. Sher is now recruiting patients for a full-scale investigation.
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