Natural statins and stroke risk.

The Burden of Stroke In the United States, '600 000 persons experience a clinical stroke (first or recurrent) annually.1 Although the case-fatality rate has declined over the past decades, it is still high. The annual death toll is '150 000, which qualifies stroke as the third leading cause of death, behind coronary heart disease (CHD) and cancer. The clinical sequelae of a stroke are often devastating. Among the more than 3 million stroke survivors, approximately one half have hemiparesis, one third are clinically depressed, one quarter cannot walk, and one sixth are aphasic.2 Stroke is the leading cause of serious disability in the United States.1 Thus, evidence of promising preventive therapies that can reduce the human and societal costs of stroke is welcome news.