Posted on 01/27/2008 12:19:54 AM PST by neverdem
THE idea that cholesterol plays a key role in heart disease is so tightly woven into modern medical thinking that it is no longer considered open to question. This is the message that emerged all too clearly from the recent news that the drug Vytorin had fared no better in clinical trials than the statin therapy it was meant to supplant.
Vytorin is a combination of cholesterol-lowering drugs, one called Zetia and the other a statin called Zocor. Because the two drugs lower LDL cholesterol by different mechanisms, the makers of Vytorin (Merck and Schering-Plough) assumed that their double-barreled therapy would lower it more than either drug alone, which it did, and so do a better job of slowing the accumulation of fatty plaques in the arteries — which it did not.
Heart disease specialists who were asked to comment on this turn of events insisted that the result implied nothing about their assumption that LDL cholesterol is dangerous, only about whether it is always medically effective to lower it.
But this interpretation is based on a longstanding conceptual error embedded in the very language we use to discuss heart disease. It confuses the cholesterol carried in the bloodstream with the particles, known as lipoproteins, that shuttle that cholesterol around. There is little doubt that certain of these lipoproteins pose dangers, but whether cholesterol itself is a critical factor is a question that the Vytorin trial has most definitely raised. It’s a question that needs to be acknowledged and addressed if we’re going to make any more headway in preventing heart disease.
To understand the distinction between cholesterol and lipoproteins it helps to know something of the history of cholesterol research.
In the 1950s, two hypotheses competed for attention among heart disease researchers. It had been known for decades that...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And I am doing the same. The only thing that keeps my blood sugar in line is drastically reducing carbs in my diet. Also, my triglycerides have gone down. My cholesterol is up slightly, but I’ve just started recently on the low carb way of eating. I expect that number to drop, too.
Do you follow Atkins or something else? Have you lost weight eating this way (or maybe that wasn’t your intent)?
My well-respected internist said the ratios are what’s important. My HDL is under 40, but my total C is also low, so the ratio was healthy.
I have a total cholesterol a little over 200 (LDL 135, HDL 80). One doc acts like I’ll die tomorrow, the other says keep doing what I’m doing. Since my ratio is excellent I told the one doc who wanted me to start statins to piss up a rope. Hopefully it will take a while to see how this plays out.
Not only that but they create a real mess in your kitchen and are hard to clean up. In the old days when we used bacon grease and butter stove tops were much easier to keep clean. I just decided anecdotally, in my non-scientific manner that if it is that hard to clean off the stove where is it sticking in my body. I’m back to bacon grease and butter.
LOL!
You have to eat cholesterol in order to have cholesterol. Lose weight and stop eating cholesterol and your cholesterol will drop like a rock. It’s not rocket science.
I started doing atkins and saw the same result.
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To help with blood sugar levels, without insulin, try cinnamon. My blood sugar was high normal, but because of family history, my doctor suggested I do something about it, and suggested the cinnamon. It worked.Look it up. Of course my low carb helps but not enough apparently, since I'd been on the low carb for a couple of years before I ever saw that doctor.
How much cinnamon, what kind, i.e. powder or capsules, and how often, if you would be so kind?
Nope. You body makes its own cholesterol. In fact, several studies have raised real questions whether dietary cholesterol has any significant effect on blood cholesterol.
Thanks.
There is much wisdom among some of the posts here. Some distractions. The NYT bashing is irrelevant here. Gary Taubes writes for NYT, and he has contributed to society an incredible book, “Good Calories/Bad Calories” that will enlighten anyone confused about cholesterol.
Cholesterol is not the enemy, particularly dietary cholesterol, since for most people, it is not greatly metabolized by the body. Cholesterol is essential to human health. Without it, we would die. (It is the precursor for many essential hormones.) Without it, we would be blobs of protoplasm on the floor. (It is what gives cell walls structure.) From a cardiovascular standpoint, cholesterol is the plaster that seals the leaky blood vessel damaged by the real problem — excessive insulin, and indirectly because of the excessive insulin, homocysteine and C Reactive protein.
Forget statins — they work by shutting down your liver, and slowly kill your immune system. Some people will die more quickly than others from them. In any event, statins don’t treat the underlying problem that cholesterol plasters over(literally), the erosion of the arterial wall.
Suggestion for all: Have an A1C test (formerly called “glycosylated hemoglobin” test), homocysteine test, and C-Reactive PRotein test, and find out if you pre-diabetic (even if your blood sugars are “normal”). If so, forget the debilitating statins, and get your blood sugar under control (by eliminating excessive refined carbohydrate, trans-fatty acids, and upping your Omega 3 oils. Eat plenty of eggs, yolk and all, Nature’s perfect food, reduce or eliminate grains, especially corn and wheat, and reduce or eliminate dairy. Meat and green vegetables, basically the Paleo Diet, is the way to go for optimum diet.
Hey thanx for the link, I’m about to have a “well woman” checkup this coming Friday. I know that my doctor is going to harangue me again to get onto statin drugs, and again, I will refuse. I’m thinking about that chelation therapy too, maybe I can get off my high blood pressure medicine, although I have no side effects from those two pills. (Except when I occasionally run out because I forgot to call down to the pharmacy the previous day—then I get that “feeling”, which I never felt before I started taking the two drugs.
Now, if somebody will tell me how to find a new doctor that will let me be in charge of my own health. I get the feeling that my doctor just might “fire” me soon
What did he do? Well, he cut back on his pork, and started eating egg rolls fried in EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL. Every thing he cooked, he cooked in olive oil. That made the difference. Why, I don't know.
I'll be learning more myself as I've been recently diagnosed as sugar diabetic type II, with cholesterol problems, and a very slightly elevated blood pressure.
I must have had a brain cramp... I remember that song, but was being too dense to recall it.
Have a good day.
Cholesterol goes down when you lose weight. No exceptions. Cholesterol goes down when you quit eating grease and eggs. No exceptions. Whether or not it goes down as much as you want is a different matter. THe cholesterol your body makes is insignificant compared to what’s in your diet.
Wrong - cholesterol is also manufactured by the liver and is a leading cause of hyperlipidemia.
There is PLENTY of things that help your cholestrol NATURALLY and it WORKS!!!
Again, wrong. For those predisposed to hyperlipidemia even a vegitreian diet would not reduce the the LDL by much. Your igonornce is bordering on dangerous.
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