BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A recent study found that using two low-cost generic heart disease drugs together can significantly reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke in those at greatest risk for these conditions.

Researchers with Kaiser Permanente followed nearly 70,000 patients with heart disease or diabetes and gave them a "bundled" treatment of both lovastatin, a common cholesterol-lowering drug, and lisinopril, a blood pressure-lowering drug, on a daily basis for two years.

They found that in the year following this treatment, risk of heart attack or stroke was reduced by 60 percent.

As a result of this lowered risk, researchers estimated that this drug treatment prevented more than 1,200 heart attacks and strokes in the group.

Considering that 23 million Americans today have diabetes and nearly four times that number suffer from heart disease, these results could have widespread implications for future treatment of these conditions.