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 ...
If your doctor beives in the statin drugs...HOW could he be very good??
Intelligent and correct post! I’m amazed (sorry, but nutrition info on FR is like UFO sighting stories) weird, untrue but the believers swear by it to the point they’re scary.
Thanks for the ping and thanks to all posters. I’ve been on 20mg Simvistatin (Zocor) for about 4 months now recommended by a doctor after a physical (otherwise healthy). The 1st pill I’ve ever been on in my life. I haven’t gone back yet for the follow-up bloodtest to see if my levels have been reduced.
Here’s a recent article with an interesting view of the statin/cholesterol controversy.
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994.htm
Thanks a lot. Interesting. Health/life BUMP!
Well .. statin was the last straw .. as we had tried everying else. And .. since you don’t know my doctor - I really resent your insinuation that he’s a “bad” doctor just because he doesn’t subscribe to YOUR methods.
Some people who have both types of cholesterol do not respond well to just “natural” or “diet” changes.
My sister does not have the same type I do .. and she has responded very easily to diet changes .. but these did not work for me. As my numbers kept creeping up and up closer to 300 - my doctor finally consented to start me on a statin .. in a very low dose. It did the trick. I have lived more than 20 years longer than my dad who had the same issue. I’ll take the statin and the 20 years - thank you!!
Not every medication works for every person and if you can get results from “natural” methods .. God bless you and I’m happy for you .. but I won’t be so rude as to call your doctor a quack because he didn’t prescribe a statin for you.
“You have to eat cholesterol in order to have cholesterol.”
You have missed the point. There are TWO types of cholesterol. One comes from food - and one comes from genetics. I have both types.
I stopped eating cholesterol for more than 6 months in a very controlled diet (without statins) .. and my numbers just kept creeping up and up. So much for “dropping like a rock”.
I could lose 10 pounds .. but my doctor is not concerned with my weight (and he insists I’m not overweight) .. so your insinuation that I’m overweight and that’s what’s causing the problem .. is way off base.
I wish it was just my diet .. but it’s not.
I agree, I have also had good results from the statin Lipitor, with no noticeable side effects and a nice lowering of my cholesterol numbers.
My doctor put me on Lipitor initially, but after we got the numbers under control he switched me over to Lovastatin. I’ve never had any problems with either .. and I thank God for the person(s) who made this drug possible.
Even for a person who eats a regular diet that has fats and cholesterol in it, something like 80-90 percent of the cholesterol in his body gets manufactured right in your liver.
Cholesterol is one of the most widely used substances in the body. As demonized as it is, it is used all over... the veins, the skin (where some of it gets converted to vitamin D, but most of it that’s there is as part of the process to build new collagen), the nerves... and what we are talking here is CHOLE (which means it comes from animals) and (STEROL) which is the basis for all the steroid type hormones your body makes, and that list is pretty darn big!
So get your Vitamin C! And get your fibrinolytics! And Vitamin E, and folates!
Personally, I’m wondering what the results of the NCBI EDTA chelation study will be.
I am 67, will be 68 in 3 months; my dad died in 1962 at the age of 49 from what was then called a coronary thrombosis and was not under a doctor’s care.
I was diagnosed with moderate hypertension but am a “strong-dipper”, meaning it normally goes down late in the day through evening.
I take 25mg Tolprol each morning and 5mg Lisinopril each evening.
I am still a dipper but the daytime numbers are way down.
Surprisingly, I have ideal cholesteral readings that haven’t changed in the two years I’ve been seeing my current doctor.
I don’t take statins and I eat butter rather than margarine; my diet consists of whatever is handy in the refrigerator without regard to the hype of the peddlers.
I take aspirin every day with my doctor’s blessing.
She too, has hypertension and just had a baby but still carries about 40 excess pounds.
I was recently advised to increase the salt in my diet.
Drink Propel water, the LPN told me.
I agonized over each year up until I was 49, by then my second child was six years old and I didn’t have time to worry so much about it.
And what does the average doctor get from prescribing a statin?
Could I ask your age?
Was the blockage found as part of a routine workup or did you experience pain or discomfort that sent you to the doctor?
St. Thomas Hospital here in Nashville is famous for doing bypass operations.
If your criteria for a "good" doctor is one who doesn't "believe" in statins, you probably have a hard time finding one.
Your liver produces cholesterol.
They are still trying to explain why the elimination of tetra-ethyl lead in gasoline didn’t make the urban population all smart by allowing the damage done before the ban was permanent; next they will say that it has proved to be heritable.
I hang around with them, there are plenty!!
I read all the low carb books then kind of came up with my own. It pretty much boils to no grains/sugar at all until the weight is gone then "nothing white" once it was.
Lost 73 lbs doing this, but 30 of them have crept back on as I let more carbs back into my diet.
I need to get on the wagon again.
LQ
I already do - sprinkle some into my coffee each am.
LQ
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