The evidence suggests you should ignore LDL cholesterol says Dr. Rodney Hayward

http://fatnews.com/ Hi, this is Larry Hobbs @ FatNews.com. LarryHobbs@fatnews.com

"[C]urrent evidence supports ignoring LDL cholesterol altogether," says the University of Michigan's [Dr. Rodney] Hayward as quoted in the cover story in BusinessWeek from January 17th, 2008 titled "Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good?"

Hi, this is Larry Hobbs @ fatnews.com.

Rodney A. Hayward, MD, Professor of Public Health and Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Rodney A. Hayward, M.D.
Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System
2215 Fuller Road, Mailstop 11H
Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2399
(734) 647-4844 phone
(734) 647-3301 fax
rhayward@umich.edu

"If cholesterol lowering itself isn't a panacea, why is it that statins do work for people with existing heart disease?," the article asks.

Statins have other biological effects according to Dr. James K. Liao
at the Vascular Medicine unit of Brigham & Women's Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Statins reduce an enzyme called Rho-kinase which causes inflammation which damages arteries according to Dr. Liao.

"When [you knock] down the level of Rho-kinase in rats, they don't get heart disease."

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in Fish Oil, also reduces Rho-Kinase.

I assume that other natural supplements do as well.

"The way our health-care system runs, it is not based on data, it is based on what makes money," "[says drug industry critic Dr. Jerome R. Hoffman, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles - UCLA.]"

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994.htm

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• statins
• lipitor

[wilsonpwt]

Conflicts of interest at drug advisory committee meetings for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are common and often of considerable monetary value, but rarely result in recusal, finds a study conducted by Public Citizen and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

[larryshobbs]

Very interesting. Thanks.

[netlethe]

This info is also Confirmed by The British Medical Journal !!

[wilsonpwt]

The most recent numbers on life expectancy around the world show that life expectancy numbers in the United States are worsening, both in absolute and relative terms.

The United States' worldwide ranking in life expectancy has dropped to 42nd, from its record of 11th.