New Cholesterol Pills and Gene Therapies Show Promise

Doctors have medicines to help people with high cholesterol, which is like gunk building up in your blood vessels and can lead to heart problems.

The most common medicines are called statins, but they don't always work well enough for everyone.

Now, scientists are creating new ways to fight bad cholesterol.

One is a new pill that works a bit like an injection that's already available; both of these target a specific protein to help your body clear out the bad stuff.

This new pill could lower bad cholesterol by up to 60%.

There's also a new idea using special technology called gene editing.

This technology aims to permanently fix a gene that causes high cholesterol, and early tests show it can significantly lower cholesterol and another type of fat called triglycerides.

While these new treatments are exciting, doctors are still checking to make sure they are safe and can truly prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Some newer options might also be very expensive, and a trial for a similar gene therapy had a serious setback recently.