Negative effects of risk factor reduction on the heart.

Some active interventions to modify risk factors paradoxically introduce new risk per se, but benefits in extensive populations vastly offset the proportionally small hazards introduced by these maneuvers. However, in daily practice, this potential source of danger can be crucial in a given patient in whom the new potential risk can be greater than the disease that one is trying to prevent or treat. Patients in whom risk factor modification introduces a new risk should be identified before it is decided who, when, and how to treat. The clinical profiles of these patients, with special reference to the negative effects of risk factor intervention on the heart, are discussed in this article.