Finally, A Reason to Cheer the FDA
by Lawrence MeyersFor a blog generally concerned with overzealous government regulation, readers might be surprised to find an article applauding the FDA. However, the regulatory agency has remained an ally of the American people by fulfilling its mandate – carefully evaluating every issue without bowing to outside pressure.
In the case of statins, which are drugs designed to lower cholesterol levels, a small group of opponents mistakenly believe these drugs can cause more harm than good. Fortunately, the FDA has dismissed their petitions – and rightly so – because of the overwhelming lack of scientific evidence to support the outrageous claims made.
Instead, statins have been on the market for quite some time, and have unquestionably saved lives. The FDA’s most recent laudable move was to approve the statin Crestor for use in patients who don’t exhibit high cholesterol, but are at risk for heart disease.
This could mean you, so read on, because this drug might save your life.
I’ve previously discussed the results of the groundbreaking JUPITER study by AstraZeneca, and the importance of the results for women. However, the JUPITER study also revealed another critical component of heart disease. You don’t need to have high cholesterol to be at risk for a cardiovascular-related event. 50% of people who suffer heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems have normal cholesterol levels. AstraZeneca wanted to see if Crestor could help out those folks.
It turns out that if you are a man over 50 or woman over 60; have a high level of a certain protein in your body (C-reactive protein, or CRP); and you have one other risk factor such as smoking, hypertension, or family history of cardiovascular disease, you may be helped by using this statin. Of the 18,000 people in the study, 2.8% experienced cardiovascular problems when treated only with a placebo. That dropped to 1.6% for those treated with Crestor – a 45% improvement.
The FDA’s approval of the drug provides yet another example of why we must be wary of health reform specifics. As much as people may be unhappy with the current system, any new health care initiative must be properly vetted so that those in need of life-saving drugs like statins are still able to get them.
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316 Comments
Yeah, well, you can't trust big pharma. They create poison so they can kill everyone, and reap the profits of slaughtering their customers and all the subsequent litigation from surviving loved ones just makes them giddy!
/channeling your typical lefty rube
Oh, I forgot. For those who aren't bright enough to know what foods are healthy check out Michelle Obama's garden.
I'll use the Michelle Obama approach but by all means knock yourselves out with the drugs.
Some people need meds and just don't realize it.
Case in point.
wingnut?
LOL
In the 1950-1960, the FDA kept the unborn in the US from suffering the horrible birth defects from the use of Thalidomide.
Thalidomide was widely used in Europe to help with the side affects of pregnancy and some people here in the US pushed relentlessly to have it approved for use here. Still the FDA withheld its approval.
Thank God.
Europe had hundreds, maybe thousands, of children born missing limbs and deformities.
I have the utmost respect and confidence in our FDA.
People with anger magt. issues should be prescribed marijuana
My Aunt threw out my Grandmother's Cholesterol drugs. Turns out they were effecting her muscles. Eventually my Grandma' could barely walk. She's getting around much better now.
That's funny, because I know a guy who's perfectly reasonable and nice, but becomes a complete asshole when he smokes weed.
Yeah, like all those farmers who would wake up in the morning for flap jacks and bacon, eggs and coffee were trying to keep fit.
One cave men looked at the other and said…"how can you eat that crap. Twinkies are going to kill you." 100,00 years people have been eating "right"? Are you serious? What is your definition of "right". 100,000 years ago people ate to survive. "Right" wasn't even a passing thought.
Bill Cosby has a great joke about marijuana use. It's one of the rare occasions when he resorts to profanity.
It went something like this:
"Why do you smoke weed?"
(in a high/drunk manner) "Well…it magnifies your personality!"
"Yeah, but what if you're an asshole?"
Because you absolutely can't have health issues innately.
People who eat in a lefty-approved Vegan manner and exercise can still have high cholesterol.
Sometimes, your genetic make-up will have its say regardless.
Sometimes, your genetic make-up will have its say regardless.
Don't worry, that's what progressive eugenics is for!
Which garden? The one where all the food is unsafe for human comsumption due to fertilizer used by the Clinton administration?
If that sort of food floats your boat, go for it!
In all fairness it is listed as a possible side effect.
In 1998 an extensive study published in the reputable Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that 106,000 people die each year in American hospitals from medication side effects (4).
Let's look at this statistic a different way: 106,000 deaths a year averages out to nearly 300 deaths per day, every day. Deaths from all major airline crashes in the U.S. average less than 300 annually, but 1 airplane crash gets more media attention and governmental scrutiny than the 300 medication-related deaths which occurred not only on the same day as the airline crash, but also every day before and after for decades.
How many people die from natural medicine that actually works and doesn't hurt your body? Zero. Each year the FDA gets a few thousand reports of adverse reactions, but nothing serious. More often than not this is because the person took way too much of the recommended intake.
I hope her husband isn't flicking his cigarette butts in there….
No matter how good your screening process is, no matter how wide your studies are, every human being is still an individual, and individuals react differently to the substances they put inside their bodies.
I wonder how many people each year die due to food-born allergies or insect stings. Strawberries and peanuts are completely natural and yet, they still kill people with the wrong body chemistry.
Are there really less deaths due to herbal remedies and other natural medicines, or is the lack of data more realistically a side-effect of the much less stringent regulatory system surrounding their use and distribution?
Nothing can be said or printed that will make me appreciate the FDA. It is as it says Federal Drug Administrator, a Federal Agency that costs free enterprise devastation. Eating right, maintaining your weight and exercising will do the same thing that Crestor will do only it doesn't cause high profits. I'm not against high profits, it benefits employees but introducing drugs into a person's system when there is a natural way, is not the best way. The FDA also warned and cautioned against apricot seeds, making them difficult to buy and convinced the powers that be to outlaw the bitter almond tree here in the US. Do some research on apricot seeds and bitter almond, they are aids for cancer patients that do not come with a high price tag. Any kind of nut now being sold in a store has to be pasteurized, this kills the nutrients in the seed and essentially makes them like junk food. We should be able to buy un pasteurized nuts and seeds if we want to, Federal Agencies should not be barring us from this.
Obama 1975: "ya, essss, pass that joint dude….(holding breath) no drugs for me bro…."
Obama 2010: "ya, essss, pass that joint dude….(holding breath) no drugs for me bro…."
Or going on a "bender" getting kkicked out of the West Wing, passing out on the picknick table and peeing in the "garden"
There is actually a good bit of conventional wisdom there – I worked for a BIG hospital in Austin in the 90's…hospitals are the dirtiest places (germ wise) ON EARTH.
I spent alot time in the non-civilian parts of the hospital (as well as in the County hospital, yuk) and whew – STAY AWAY.
Despite "universal precautions" stay away from being admitted unless absolutely necessary.
Day surgery if possible.
You expect us to take this seriously? A "45 percent improvement?" Those numbers are statistically insignificant. 97.2 percent had no problems without the drug, and 98.4 percent had no problems when they took the drug. Paints it a little differently, doesn't it? What about the number of people whose livers were wrecked by taking the drug due to serious side effects?
This side effect is due to statin drugs robbing the body of Ubiquitone or CoQ10. Anyone taking a statin drug should also be taking CoQ10. If you know anything about Ubiquitone then you know how important it is that you have it. Drug reps will not tell you this, nor will drug companies because CoQ10 is a natural substance. Any physician worth their salt will tell you this if they know. Most only know what the drug rep tells them. The physicians that I work with who prescribe statins also tell the patient to supplement with CoQ10.Physicians who take statins also take CoQ10.
That's right… use a drug to control yourself rather than being a grown up and learning to control yourself… moron.
Do you mean her 'toxic garden'?? LOL!!
I had the same results! I have high cholesterol (not associated with diet!) and can not take the statins for the same reasons! My muscles ached so bad I could hardly function!
We're gonna find out soon, but I don't think anybody really going to be happy about it once it starts! You take a left, then a right for that office.
Basic epidemiology:
1) A risk factor is not a disease, it is something that may play a role, like bad tires and car wrecks; having worn tires doesn't mean you'll have a wreck. There are many risk factors in vascular disease, many more probably unknown, which means nobody knows what causes it yet we're treating millions of people, a vast natural experiment. What is increasingly clear is that heart disease is highly genetic.
2) Fifty percent of heart attacks have normal cholesterol? This has been known for decades–the relationship between your cholesterol and your heart attack is a coin toss.
3) The lesions that show up on a heart cath are stable; the ones that rupture and cause a clot are commonly not visible on x-ray and whether or not they rupture cannot so far be related to cholesterol (there's that 50% again).
4) Periodically the "normal" cholesterol/blood pressure/blood sugar gets defined down, creating folks who need medicine with the stroke of a pen. One can ponder the implications of this but take it from me: the statistics supporting these recommendations are dense and convoluted; a general principle of science is that, if there is a genuine effect, it should be clear. Repeating, a risk factor is not a disease and "treating" risk factors is logically and medically dubious.
John, it's tragic but you're definitely correct!
I would definitely encourage you to try some drugs.
LOL
Wait who are you talking about?
Statins lower cholesterol but,doesn't change heart disease or stroke. Any affect is due to decreasing inflammation.C-reactive protein is an inflammatory marker.So,now let's put people on drugs even though their "nunbers" are normal.If 100 people are on the drug,100 are not—the difference is 1.2 people! But,the pharma sold lots of drugs to get that 1.2.The absolute numbers not so impressive.
I can't stand the fact that these drug companies are taken to court due to someone died from the drug. Any type of drug. Just because it will work for one person doesn't mean it will work for you.
I never thought I would agree "somewhat" with something you post, anon. I agree that we rely too much on drugs that do little more than treat symptoms – and not enough on correcting problems through natural means, such as supplements and lifestyle changes. However, drugs that treat symptoms have their place, such as when one needs a med to help get a serious problem under control.
I do wish that pharmaceutical companies would work more on medicinal "cures" rather than treating symptoms, as I am sure most reasonable folks would.
Eating right and keeping fit is easier said than done these days, since the fields used to plant essential crops for healthy diets have been pretty much void of the essential minerals needed to enrich our bodies (unless you plant your own).
But, would that not end up creating a munchie-induced obesity problem? You know, where there are not enough sliders in any one White Castle to curb the voracious appetite of the average pothead?
Don't you just love all of those drug commercials aimed at certain problems, only to be followed up by an endless litany of "side effects" that might cause more harm than the drug offers as a single benefit? Some of those ads would crack me up, if they did not scare the sh!t out of me, sometimes.
BTW – Since when is having an erection lasting more than four hours cause for alarm? & why, other than to thank him/her, profusely, should one need to call their physician?… other than perhaps the EMT's for your partner : ) …?
the 4th leading cause of death is—people taking their medications CORRECTLY!
The problem with this or any other medicine it seems, is when people think it's a magic pill and a substitute for a healthy lifestyle. I know people with cholesterol problems who don't bother to eat properly or exercise because they think by just taking a pill, it somehow absolves all that bad behavior.
The First Gardener, Mooshelle (credit to Cowboy Logic) has twiggy arms and the rump of a healthy baboon. Pace yourself carefully, anonymous one, your meds are running low.
Lawrence, I am curious. The literature, studies, and even a drug patent search will uncover that statins deplete the body of a heart essential compound called COQ10. Pfizer has a statin with the COQ10 in it already patented but has not marketed it. Doctors for the most part do not know about this issue and therefore do not prescribe additional COQ10 to those for whom they ask to take the statins. The Life Extension Foundation of Fort Lauderdale Florida has asked the FDA to put warnings out on the issue and they have refused, in what appears to be another step at not ruffling the feathers of the companies that feed them. Fish Oils, re methylation with TMG, polyphenols and diet all reduce CRP without the high price tag and possible side effects of statins. Why do we not hear about this?
Er, well, I do refer to our bedroom as the "West Wing" – don't ask, won't tell.
"I'll use the Michelle Obama approach…" anon – you mean our Wookie Lookin', affirmative action, painted on eyebrow, scarier than a Zombie flick, lookin' FLOTUS?
anon in drag! LOL! hey wear the orange pumpkin dress!
Leftie anon wrote – "Oh, I forgot. For those who aren't bright enough to know what foods are healthy check out Michelle Obama's garden."
Michelle Obama's "garden" was a total sham and just a dog and pony show for gullible lefties like yourself. No one can eat her veggies because the Clintons had the WH lawns fertilized with a sewage-based fertilizer containing lead and other heavy metals. Something your state-controlled-media forgot to mention when gushing over it and the Iron Chef deal. Check out the AP fairy-tale and see if they mention anything about them not using the veggies – nope – they got their veggies from their local market just like we all do. Ya'll are being sold a bill of goods or rather being lead down the garden path…heh
Has anyone noticed, no one cures anything, they manage the problem.
What happened to Fix The Problem?
The next thing on the agenda for the FDA is to control nutritional supplements.
It seems that Sen. McCain is pushing for this move. Anything to give big Pharma
the control they seek over our lives, and all because of the big bucks they make
every year.
We need to protect ourselves from this next move by big government!
But but but but……MeeSchell is the FAT CZAR. She has to know what is good for you and her veggies have to be good, she is the FAT CZAR. No, say it isn't so that we can't eat MeeSchell's veggies. I am so sad.
I strongly recommend reading Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories. It is NOT a diet book. It is a review of the science behind current diet/heart health claims, and the whole statin/cholesterol issues is discussed in some detail. It's right up there with global warming in terms of scientific accuracy. You may or may not change what you eat, or what meds you take, or how you exercise, but I guarantee it will give you some new points of view to think over.
What happened to people taking care of themselves? I feel like we are in an iphone commercial but instead of an app "there's a government program for that" 110 years ago who managed the cholesterol of the American people? I don't need the government to tell me anything, except how to make them go away. If they would only share a plan to get rid of them for good. People who are over weight do they really need to be told to lose weight? Shouldn't it be clear in the mirror? If you have a history of heart disease in your family shouldn't it be glaring obvious you also are at risk? Shouldn't that kick off an alarm "eat right, exercise". Oh no way, not when you can sit your dead butt on the couch and take a pill to prevent the risk. Once again a government agency encourage inaction no accountability from the people. Enablers.
I'm with David–bravo! A most informative book is "Bad Calories, Good Calories" by Taubes. Take it in small doses because it urgently needed a ruthless editor–it's as if the author amassed mountains of big and little data and couldn't bear to leave anything out. Nonetheless it's a priceless look at cholesterol politics (and Al Gore is there) going back to the 1950s and before. Dissenting voices stifled–sound familiar? In the '50s the 'informed' thinking did a complete 180 based on the personal influence and political connections of one man, canceling out all the earlier data.
There's even a side look at the hallowed food groups/balanced diet: where did that idea come from? There's the story of two explorers who lived with the Eskimo in the early 20th century for a few years, used up their European food after several weeks, then ate the native diet which contained no plants, vegetables, etc–lots of blubber, though. When they returned their health was good.
Really, "we've done quite well over the past 100,000 years by simply eating right and keeping fit", have we?
Is that why ancient Egyptians died from abscessed teeth, infected wounds, had painful arthritis, etc.?
Millions of people, maybe billions, in the past 100,000 years died from measles, chicken and small pox, whopping cough, TB, the black plague, childbirth, typhus, typhoid, esophageal cancer brought on by GERD,
polio, and all manner olf other things, that are now treatable/curable.
No, she's the "toned arms" czar. Nothing more. Oh, and the "poor little black girl who grew up on the south side of Chicago" czar, and oh yeah, the "I'll send my kids to the $50,000 a year school instead of sending them to poor schools on D.C.'s south side" czar. And, "I married up good" czar.
Great, a cardiologist that doesn't know how to spell "Ivey" league schoos. Just the kind of cardiologist I would loke to have treating me. By the way, I am a Doktor.
JimmyBoy
The farthest back people you can refer to are the Egyptians and I assume you are referring to mummies that go back no farther than 6 thousand years. You are an evolution groupie and that automatically discounts me from taking stock in anything you say. Evolution is a theory, a religion, it's very similar to the science of global warming, but your education has pushed it down your throat so you believe it, that's fine. Medical advances such as antibiotics for infections and plague are prescribed as needed, not as preventatives. Certain Malaria drugs are prescribed as preventatives but they are not taken on a long term basis. Preventative vs Treatable is the issue I take with the FDA and Crestor. How many times has the FDA been wrong? The FDA should not even exist, trained medical experts and the person themselves should be the judge of what they take and don't take. FDA costs lots of tax dollars and do they really prevent medical tragedies? Ever hear those commercials on TV, the lawyers filing suit against drugs that were approved by the FDA.
Kudos to Cardiologist David. I'm a layperson that has done research regarding statins, CoQ10, the FDA, LDL, etc. since my husband developed angina seven years ago. The accumulation of plaque in the arteries is caused by inflammation, which may be an indication of a nutritional deficienty, exposure to chemicals, genetic defect, etc. that has yet to be determined. If you want to learn more about the FDA's complicity with the drug companies in promoting questionable drugs, read Marcia Angell's (former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine), book, THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES.
And an equally informative book by her colleague, Jerome Kasserir, also a former editor.
There's a lot of stuff we need to revisit as most of what we've been told by the media the last decades have been lies. They let us down and now may they die a slow and agonizing death.
I do believe, and maybe the doctors here can confirm it, but I think that folic acid has been shown to reduce that C-reactive Protein and the inflammation that accompanies it. I refuse to take the Statins anymore (after more than 10 years on) due to muscle and knee problems. I have very high cholesteral ( and that dreaded family risk factor) but at age 49 had an all-clear angiogram. I take fish oil, folic acid and CoQ10 every day.
You moron you……………..looking for any excuse you could, though finding none, went into your imbecilic evolution rant.
I'm not a Darwinian, there's NOTHING in my post that anyone could ever construe as having anything at all to do with evolution, Though I made a vague reference to Egyptian mummies, I was also referencing THE ICE MAN and the BOG People.
Your rant is just that, a nonpunctuated spew, which is long on wind, bereft of facts, and off topic, especially as a refutation of my post.
So stuff it, Lambie.
"a 45% improvement."
Once the government is running things they'll see it as a 1.2% improvement for $X… since Crestor is not generic / expensive… I doubt they'd pay for it.
My mean eeevil insurance company covers mine now….
anon · 4 hours ago
"We've done quite well over the past 100,000 years by simply eating right and keeping fit."
Actually, most people didn't live past 30….
Hard to get much cholesterol build up when everyone dies young.
As to ideology… I’m pro pill and pro science. It’s the ‘lefties’ that now want to go back to a utopian (as in ‘nowhere’) organic past… 80 years ago this would have been ‘right wing’ in Europe… but I don’t suppose you want to know any of that…
Statins are the biggest con game ever and I can't believe Breitbart approves of this junk article.
The second you come off them, up goes your cholesterol. It's a drug-for-life game, and you should all stay well away from them. They don't treat the root cause of high cholesterol, they merely mask the symptoms.
And we're not even talking about the fact high cholesterol isn't a cause of heart disease; it's a symptom.
Sheesh. Is it any wonder we're in the mess we're in when people believe this tripe.
On the other hand, how many people would die without their medication? I'd be dead without mine. No doubt about it (as in I had an organ failing by 20% a month before I started the meds), I would have died in 09. Now I'll probably get an extra 10 years. I'm even 100% self sufficient and work full time.
Don't be too fast to claim statins as a wonder drug–they almost killed me. I had a terrible reaction that permanently injured my liver. . . and while I would never want the FDA to take them off the market (like they're threatening to do with Acetaminophen, despite the small numbers of people who react to them), I think that the growing reliance on prescription drugs for 'maintaining health" is problematic–the same FDA that promotes the drugs also promotes the changes to 'normal' levels of cholesterol and blood pressure, etc. I asked my doctor what percentage of the population could achieve the current "optimal" cholesterol levels recommended assuming they ate healthily–she said about 15%–to me that means the measurement is wrong. Prescription drugs should not be required for the majority of the population to be "normal"–shows there's a problem with the definition of normal.
Lighten up yoyo. Dispute his facts not his spelling!
Wasn't that a hoot when the toxic garden was exposed! (I think the first I heard about it was here.) If they really want us to eat good, fresh vegies, that need to turn the damned water back on in central CA! Not sure where the local grocers are getting their supply now, but my guess would be either crap from China or Mexico.
No dispute. Cholesterol has been shown to be high in a group of individuals with low testosterone levels, especially diabetics. Several studies, three I can reference, have lowered cholesterol by normalizing testosterone levels. The connection between homocysteine levels and arterial schlerosis shows homocysteine as the culprit not cholesterol. That is why re-methylation works it lowers homocysteine levels which take cholesterol out of the blood, combineswith it and the new substance is the beginning of plack formation.
Interesting reaction.
Millions of people, maybe billions, in the past 100,000 years. Hmmm that was you that said that wasn't it? Maybe I am quoting from someone else? Maybe you were quoting someone else regarding the past 100,000 years. I'm not above admitting an error. My point was Crestor to be given as a preventative is in my opinion a bad idea and medications in the past have been created because of a need.
lol….I was going to say " her diet hasn't done a thing for her rearend"….You
beat me to it!!….Her arms are twiggy cause they're alot longer than most
peoples arms…..I never liked making fun of people, but when the media
tells me she has the most beautiful arms, it makes you take a second look,
and you tend to scrutinize more…..lol
Your "intent" was not espoused to me, as a principle part of your reply to my post. Instead, you impugned me, called me an evolutionist, and the went after that straw man arugment; tossing in Crestor as an afterthought.
So please, do, by all means, admit your error and we'll be done with it, here and now.
JimmyBoy, David is correct.
The most effective way to raise HDL and lower triglycerides is through diet. Specifically, a low carb diet.
Fat is your diet is essential for good health. The recommendations for low fat diets have done nothing but caused sky rocketing obesity and money for the pharmaceutical companies who produce statins.
Mussolini got the trains running on schedule. Should he be cheered for that?
Hitler got unemployment down. Should he be cheered?
I am sure that Charles Manson did something good once.
We don't measure success by the exceptions. We don't cheer for the occasional error that is serendipitously good.
The FDA has done far more bad than good and should be replaced with common sense. Just one more part of an over bloated government system that is failing everyone but lining their own pockets with gold.
Where does the Constitution give the government agencies like the FDA any power at all?
Hmm hmm hmm
Under Obamacare, I wonder how the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would react to this decision? (/sarc)
OF COURSE the JUPITER study by AstraZeneca says Crestor is good for additional conditions … they market Crestor! Anyone who deals with data knows that, "figures lie and liars figure.". Had the Jupiter study shown one negative thing about Crestor it never would have seen the light of day. Can you say, "BIASED?"
Always perplexes me to see wingnuts promoting the use of drugs.
I've got a suggestion. Quit stuffing your fat face with junk food. And get on the exercise machine.
We've done quite well over the past 100,000 years by simply eating right and keeping fit.
How is it that Anon(ymous) the NeoCom is one of the first to leave a comment on any of the Drudge Report Articles… the only thing I can make of it is that he is one of the victims of the current economic downturn and not having a job, can peruse the Drudge sites 24 hrs a day and pounce at the first sign of a new Post (or a regular for the brown shirt DNC'ers).
The picture would be different, I expect, if it were possible to measure the number of people who die because of refusal to take safe and effective medications.
Many die due to poor decisions made by their physicians, as well. So? Let not perfection be the enemy of the merely good.
I'm a little torn on the issue of the FDA. On the one hand, it's good to have a firm layer of testing between the public and new medications. On the other hand, prescription drugs are very expensive, and it's the costs of R&D and the costs of testing to bring the drug to market that help drive that cost high.
You've never taken a statistics class. Thanks for sharing your opinion, but you saying those numbers are statistically insignificant doesn't make them so.
How come no one says that when pro-environment groups fund studies that uncover results they can use to feed the push for things like Cap and Trade?
He might also be one of those people at the NSA who's getting paid to troll blogs.
Avoid hospitals at all costs….
No no no, see "climate scientists" sre infallible, damn near diety – drug company scientists are kooks and hacks.
Come on R.W.& J., get on board with the M.S.M. narrative here.
Anon, I have been resisting making any reply to the obvious lack of intelligent thought or facts in your comments to date. To day is the day, aren't you thrilled? Simply put you are an ass hole!
I could not continue on Lipitor from the muscle problems, so I dropped most of the meat from my diet, I follow the clean plate diet, high fiber, easy to stay on, lots of fruits and veggies, and I follow move a little, lose a lot. Plus I have Welch's 100% grape juice daily, aspirin and a beer. Works for me. Also, lots of friends, pets, stay active, no stress…
I couldn't agree with you more. I was on Crestor and Lipitor for extended periods. The side effects were debilitating — I developed problems with memory and cognition. It took months to recover.
If you switch to grass-fed beef, you won't have to give up meat altogether. Grass fed (nature's way) results in much lower fat beef that is high in Omega 3's (almost as good as fish and equal to chicken). Most of what's wrong with beef has been created by the factory farming move to CORN feed, which is unnatural for beef to eat–they can't digest it properly, which is why the move to filling them full of antibiotics and hormones to keep them from being sick from the corn. I highly recommend reading the Omnivore's Dilemma for an interesting and enlightening look at our food supply.
My grandmother was otherwise doing very well, but her cholesterol was high, so they put her on cholesterol-reducing meds, and it created incredible problems for her. Obviously everybody's body chemistry and drug reactions are different, but for her, where she had been able to function very well before the drugs, she no longer could walk long distances, open jars herself, and she felt horrible. When she finally quit taking the meds, she immediately started to improve, though it took several months for her to get close to how well she was feeling beforehand. I think the target numbers for "good" and "bad" cholesterol need to be reevaluated to investigate whether different people might in fact have different natural cholesterol levels that don't need to conform to a rigid understanding of what the numbers should be.
Umm… you are citing a study conducted by the very people who stand to benefit from a favorable outcome of the drug? Did you fail to find the data on the muscle damage and nerve damage caused by statins? The real answer to preventing heart attacks and narrowing arteries is not more drugs – the real answer is for people to take more responsibility for their health and stop eating crap that causes these health problems.
Here is one alternative view of statins: http://www.naturalnews.com/026620_pneumonia_stati...
———————————————
The drugs, which are sold under familiar names like Lipitor, Vitorin, Zocor, Zetia, Crestor and others, are beginning to be pushed for reasons other than lowering cholesterol — including the alleged prevention of pneumonia.
If this use of the drug doesn't seem to make sense to you, you aren't alone. In fact, giving statins to elderly people to prevent pneumonia increases the risk they will get the disease.
That's the new finding from a study of more than 3,000 Group Health patients recently published in the British Medical Journal. "Prior research based on automated claims data had raised some hope — and maybe some hype — for statins as a way to prevent and treat infections including pneumonia," Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, a physician at Group Health and assistant investigator at Group Health Center for Health Studies, said in a statement to the media. "But when we used medical records to get more detailed information about patients, our findings didn't support that approach."
What they found was disturbing: pneumonia risk was 26 percent higher in people using a statin than in those not on the drug. What's more, the extra risk soared up to 61 percent for severe pneumonia that landed people in the hospital.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
I am a Cardiologist. I have studied the issue of statins and the concept of lowering cholesterol going back to the original articles in the 50's. I can state and have stated in Federal court (and won) that cholesterol does not cause cardiovascular disease. It is tragic that so much effort has been expended on this when the real cause has not been looked at. The real cause has to do with inflamation. Statins will help with this form of inflamation in slected circumstances and thus have limited benefit. There is a definite problem with side effects from these drugs that is not well defined. Some studies out of the Ivey league schools and Japan have indicated very harmful effects associated with lowering cholesterol and fats in your diet. The FDA decision is right in line with their usual junk.
[...] [...]
OK. NOW I'm pissed off! lol!
"Avoid health books…you might die of a misprint"………Mark Twain
I cannot help but LMAO at "I married up good" czar
Adult-onset Diabetes (now diagnosed in kids)
High levels of cholesterol and triglycerides
High blood pressure
Obesity
In my opinion, the above are like the heads of a hydra, from mythology. You try to "cut one off," by treating it with medication, and another one pops up in its place. The only way to successfully treat these problems is to address the root cause: Hyperinsulenemia. When that is addressed in an effective way, the above problems usually resolve without medications, or the patients are often able to get off their medications.
I have found the most effective method of dealing with hyperinsulenemia is to eat an adequate protein, adequate, but low-carb diet, including healthy fats, such as flaxseed oil with lignans, olive oil, and walnut oil. The low-fat diet did great damage to many who bought into it.
If pressed for reading on the topic, I would list, The Protein Power Lifeplan, and The South Beach Diet (minus the dried beans, due to lectin issues). The Protein Power doctors also wrote a simpler, shorter Lifeplan 30-Day guide book, too.
By the way, I understand a literal goldmine awaits the first company to produce a successful and effective drug for Fatty Liver Disease. Due to our levels of obesity and poor eating habits, children have begun to develop this disease, which spells big trouble down the road for these kids.
Well being an RN I understand some of the mechanics that led us to "high cholesterol levels" in the last 20 or so years. How about the artificial sweeteners….it is an UNNATURAL substance-all of them except the untouched, unprocessed stevia plant."(I'm not talking about Truvia either) It looks perfectly harmless until it chemically alters our own cell functions, which leads to diabetes, pancreatic cancer, liver failure and acceleration of the build up of cholesterol!
To make matters worse, you have the media bombarding us on a daily basis to consume, consume, and consume some more especially when it comes to fast foods and now with the GMO foods, which again alters the chemical functions of our own cells, causing liver and pancreatic diseases. Of course we will start having problems when the liver is not functioning quite right.
I remember as a teenager the scare was Sweet-N-Low and how it caused cancer, the FDA balked at the studies and said it was perfectly safe and now we have an EPIDEMIC of cancer in this country-hmmmm do you think there is any correlation? We have the same problems with the Nutri-sweet, Equal, and now Truvia….yes you bet the FDA is there to kill us off!
I don't see why we need to praise the FDA for approving something, it's not like they actually did anything for us. Without the FDA we'd be able to take whatever drug we wanted. The only problem would be we would have to be responsible for finding information (which our Doctor could help with) instead of them. I would gladly accept that responsibility in exchange for more freedom.
The FDA approved a new heart pump last month. The spokesperson said "This heart pump could save 5,000 to 10,000 lives this year".
So every year this heart pump was not approved, 5,000 to 10,000 people died because of the FDA.
A couple of fish oil caps a day and a little exercise will do more to reduce your risk of heart attack and cost far, far less money. And you won't have to worry about destroying your liver or being crippled from muscle deterioration.
That's just it, the Jupiter study showed that even people with normal cholesterol, people who aren't stuffing their faces with junk, can be helped. And over the last 100k years life expectancy was only 35 whereas now it's 75.
I agree with David the cardiologist – did you know that cholesterol is a necessary substance for the proper operation of our brains? Gee I wonder if most liberals are taking statins.. hahahahaha That might explain why they seem so dumb.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/0902...
Cholesterol-Reducing Drugs May Lessen Brain Function, Says Researcher
ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2009) — Research by an Iowa State University scientist suggests that cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins may lessen brain function.
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"If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters," said Shin. "Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words — how smart you are and how well you remember things."
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