Discovery and development of statins walls of people that died from occlusive vascular diseases, like myocardial infarction. The cholesterol was found to be responsible for the thickening of the arterial walls and thus decreasing the radius in the arteries which leads in most cases to hypertension and increased risk of occlusive vascular diseases. In the 1950s the Framingham heart study led by Dawber revealed the correlation between high blood cholesterol levels and coronary heart diseases. Following up from that study the researchers explored a novel way to lower blood cholesterol levels without modifying the diet and lifestyle of subjects suffering with elevated blood cholesterol levels.
Chronic endothelial injury hypothesis the hypertension often seen with atherosclerosis. The role LDL plays suggests two different approaches to treatment and prevention. The first approach involves discouraging the accumulation of LDL by lowering the levels of serum LDL, an idea more closely associated with the lipid hypothesis. A major breakthrough involved the discovery of statins, a class of drugs which help to clear LDL from the bloodstream. It has been demonstrated conclusively that elevated levels of LDL are associated with higher risk of mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD); it has also been shown that statins substantially lower the risk of mortality in patients