Under other health facts. The news is filled with numbers of deaths caused by second hand smoke. It appears that death by "second hand smoke" is not a medically recognized cause of death, hence you won't find this listed as cause of death on a death certificate. In other news, It also appears that no one knows anyone who has died from second hand smoke.
http://www.allbusiness.com/medicine-health/diet-nutrition-fitness-cholesterol/10538204-1.html http://www.theheart.org/article/932477.do http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/11/when-news-sounds-too-good-statins-new.html http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/111710/media_trumpet_dangerous_heart_drug/ There's a starter course. There are hundreds if not thousands of controlled studies showing statins to be dangerous, and cardiovascular disease to definitively be of a inflammatory causation - nearly almost always completely unrelated to and independent of total or LDL-specific cholesterol levels in the blood.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/31/AR2008123100981.html http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Vyto...ed_after_Release_of_Studys_Results_15747.html http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/14/vytorin-schering-merck-biz-healthcare-cx_mh_0114enhance.html http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-15601291.html "Earlier in the year, another major trial found that the widely used cholesterol medication Vytorin, which combines simvastatin with a second drug, ezetimibe, was no better at lowering LDL cholesterol than simvastatin alone. And, at year's end, debate continued on whether very strict control of blood sugar actually helps diabetics cut their risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular troubles. Two major trials, called VADT and ACCORD, each found that the strategy was either ineffective in lowering heart risks (VADT) or actually boosted the death risk by 22 percent (ACCORD)."
it's all about how you feel...eat whatever makes you feel good an healthy (long term) also, I agree, there are some older people with super high bad cholesterol, who feel great, no health issues etc...
BuyLoSellHi, you are making the case that statins don't lower LDL cholesterol, but the real question is do they lower heart disease risk?
Good question. Honest physicians who have substantive knowledge on cardiovascular health are coming forward to state that to the extent that statins (the older gen) reduce cardiovascular events and mortality, it is only to the extent that they act as cardiovascular anti-inflammatory agents. As to the newest generation of statins, which were basically developed and adopted to allow pharma companies patents on new "improved" meds (Crestor, Zetia, Vytorin) when older ones went off patent and were able to be produced as generics, there is a growing and substantive body of empirical evidence that they are actually dangerous, and increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular events and mortality. The main claim that I am making based on some of the most credible medical studies to date, despite big pharma attempts to downplay the news, is that overall cholesterol scores, and even LDL cholesterol scores, have little if any bearing, in and of themselves, on one's risk of suffering cardiovascular disease. The 'numbered benchmarks' for total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels are possibly arbitrary (likely arbitrary). Drawing a nexus between blood cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease is a flawed endeavor. Some or even many people who have poor cardiovascular health may also have high levels of total cholesterol, but the latter does not cause the former. It is an incidental condition. Cardiovascular disease is primarily an inflammatory condition, not one caused by cholesterol.
"Results: For every 10-g/d increase in saturated fat intake, IMT was 0.03 mm higher (P = 0.01) after multivariate adjustment. A 1-g/d higher intake of trans fat was associated with a 0.03-mm higher IMT (P = 0.02) after multivariate adjustment. The ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat (P:S) was inversely associated with IMT after multivariate adjustment (change in IMT: â0.06 mm; P < 0.01). Saturated and trans fat intakes were independently associated with IMT thickness (change in IMT: 0.03 mm; P < 0.01 and 0.02, respectively; P for interaction = 0.01). Polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, cholesterol, and total fat intakes were unrelated to IMT. The relation between saturated fat intake and IMT strengthened (β = 0.0066, P < 0.001) in persons who never or rarely consumed alcohol as compared with moderate or heavy drinkers (β = 0.0001, P = 0.79, P for interaction = 0.01)." Interrelation of saturated fat, trans fat, alcohol intake, and subclinical atherosclerosis1,2,3 Anwar T Merchant, Linda E Kelemen, Lawrence de Koning, Eva Lonn, Vlad Vuksan, Ruby Jacobs, Bonnie Davis, Koon K Teo, Salim Yusuf, Sonia S Anand for the SHARE and SHARE-AP investigators 1 From the Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Canada (ATM, LdK, EL, RJ, BD, KKT, SY, and SSA); McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada (ATM, LdK, KKT, SY, and SSA); Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Canada (EL, KKT, SY, and SSA); the Alberta Cancer Board, Calgary, Canada (LEK); the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (VV); and Six Nations Health Services, Ohsweken, Canada (RJ and BD) http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/87/1/168 Dietary saturated and trans fat increase LDL and total cholesterol. For you to make such a bold statement of no connection between cholesterol and heart disease and that it's all a conspiracy by medical community and pharms is ludicrous and reckless reasoning. :eek:
I will say this...Nearly EVERY elderly person I know who was diagnosed with high cholest. went on medication that was very expensive for 5-10 years....and in almsot EVERY case they still had to get the artery blown out and a stent put in .....makes you wonder if it would be cheaper to just have the balloon in the heart and a stent at 50???