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. Its a question that needs to be acknowledged and addressed if were 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 ...
Sorry to rain on the parade, but in recent tests cinnamon did nothing to lower blood sugar. I used to use it, too, but now it has been proven to be ineffective.
I can find the news reports, if you are interested, or you can do an internet search on it.
I wish it were true.
And what does the average doctor get from prescribing a statin?
As far as I know, the "average" doctor gets nothing. However, there is a whole lot more to the chain than that. A lot of pharmaceutical money goes into the process of making a drug AND making that drug marketable. That means selling the doctor on using it. Not to sound tin foil hat-ish, but don't kid yourself into thinking that research in drugs and medicine is any less political and money influenced than any other science. AIDS is the most glaring example of that.
Manufacturers have a colossal financial interest in maximizing use of their drugs. Don't think that the barrage of (prescription) drug commercials you are bombarded with on TV every evening are done out of altruistic motives.
Most practitioners have very little time to research the info on new drugs. They rely very heavily on the material supplied to them by the drug manufacturers, who incidentally have a lot of influence on the studies of these drugs. At times the only real info doctors assimilate on a drug is what the pharmaceutical tells them and the literature that the rep leaves with the samples. Scary, but it's true.
I'm not suggesting big conspiracies and plots. I am suggesting that when there is this kind of money involved, it behooves one look past the obvious and see who benefits. Hence the term "Follow the Money". Which, IMO, applies to nearly everything in life.
Well, if the kid's welfare momma was a DIMocrat, it's likely the kid will grow up the same. That's inherited, in a manner of speaking.
I'm somewhat serious about that statement.
But it does take a long time for the lead to be rooted out of that environment. In that sense, it hasn't been that long. And if you have several of generations that have been dumbed down by lead, the welfare state and such, just removing the lead without changing anything else will not have a dramatic effect. It's got to have a beneficial effect on health, but we can't expect much in the area of "smarts".
I’ve read different things about it - some studies say yes, some no. The ones that say yes usually use a lot more than I do.
I like the taste so even if it doesn’t work I’ll still keep doing it :) .
Another thing I read about it was that something in the solids of the powder can be harmful (carcinogenic, maybe - can’t remember where I read it) so I always leave the cinnamon sludge in the bottom of the cup and don’t drink it.
LQ
Cinnamon Supplementation in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
If you can't access the article, I can post it, or preferably FReepmail it. It's four pages long. Two studies say it works, one didn't. IIRC, there are three species of cinnamon. Maybe which one makes a difference.
"Cinnamon contains a biologically active substance initially classified as methylhydroxy-chalcone polymer (MHCP).[9, 10] The MHCP stimulates the insulin receptor kinase, leading to autophosphorylation of the insulin receptor substrate 1. This action results in increased glucose uptake in adipocytes. Glycogen synthesis also increases with MHCP activity. Combining MHCP and insulin provided synergistic effects on both glucose uptake and glycogen production in vitro."
You are what you eat. Lose weight, control your diet, excercize, and all these mysterious maladies will dissapear...usually. THere’s always exceptions.
WHat of it?
It’s obvious to even a simpleton that when people talk about their cholesterol being too high they are talking about the bad cholesterol. Your body produces good cholesterol when it doesn’t get sufficient amounts of cholesterol from food. THe cholesterol that comes from food is largely the bad cholesterol.
Therefore, the less cholesterol you eat, the less bad cholesterol in your blood and the more good cholesterol in your blood.
Like I said before, it ain’t rocket science. Some people just can’t accept the truth...that is that they cause their own problems.
Tell him to man up. If that doesn't stop his complaining, nothing will.
I told him if he would walk faster he would warm up. I mean, it was 40 degrees outside. I thought it felt pretty good. We walked yesterday and this evening and he did much better. His blood must be circulating better because he noticed how hot the house is tonight.
He really seemed to enjoy the walk this evening. It was hard for him to get started but now that he is, he’s going to keep walking or I will nag him to death! :-)
You are a voice crying in the wilderness.
This cholesterol/CHD connection has been around for so long that people get upset when you question it.
And, unfortunately, there is so much money in the statin drug market (highest revenue drug for pharma companies) that they are going to be around causing serious complications and no actual benefit for people for awhile.
“Don’t anyone quit taking statins....
There are numerous other ways in which statins might be effective. “
There are numerous ways to improve all the markers for inflammation and other risk factors that do not have the complications of statins.
We have a friend who took statins for awhile and got so he couldn’t walk anymore. Doctor took him off of them and said he would probably get back to normal in a fairly short time. That’s been 4 months ago and he can still barely walk.
“m hesitant to start down a life-long path of taking drugs with known side-effects in many people.”
There’s tons of data on the web about how to solve this without drugs — you just won’t find it on WebMD.
google: high triglycerides alternative medicine
“I think this answers the question. If everyone is defined as “sick, then this means everyone needs “medication.””
Sick people = customers
One should certainly feel free to enumerate w/specifics after making such a claim. Then be prepared to discuss, point by point.
“Cholesterol goes down when you lose weight. No exceptions.”
You are so full of it. You might strongly believe it but that doesn’t make it true.
When you stop ingesting cholesterol your liver produces it. Look it up. It’s not hard to find.
Try out the easy stuff under a Doctors care and see what works best for you.
“Its obvious to even a simpleton that when people talk about their cholesterol being too high they are talking about the bad cholesterol. Your body produces good cholesterol when it doesnt get sufficient amounts of cholesterol from food. THe cholesterol that comes from food is largely the bad cholesterol.”
You just make this stuff up as you go along don’t you?
*ahem* Actually if you don't eat any cholesterol, your body will manufacture its own.
Some cholesterol is vital to your health. Among other things it's what your body converts into testosterone...
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