Just When We Thought Life Was Getting Drab

[braumeister]

My primary care physician calls statins poison and says they are dangerous for a but a very few special cases.

You're lucky to have such a sensible doctor. Mine would have them put statins in the water supply if he could.

I remember one doctor who said all drugs are "poisons with some desirable side effects." I always liked that definition.

 

[braumeister]

I would not trust this information. Instead, please see the AAFP treatment guidelines here, with good background info : Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines Update - March 1, 2002 - American Family Physician

Agreed that your reference is pretty much the standard model, but are you familiar with any studies that have actually identified what the mechanism might be for how LDL causes atherosclerosis?

That's the missing link that makes me skeptical of this conventional wisdom.

 

[haha]

I would not trust this information. Instead, please see the AAFP treatment guidelines here, with good background info : Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines Update - March 1, 2002 - American Family Physician

I should probably mention that I did not start this thread to advocate any position on cholesterol, foods, statins or anything else. I just thought that an article advising us to eat cholesterol was funny, in light of the last 40 years of intense fear of cholesterol.

I do feel that humorous sceptisism about all things nutritional may be the best course, at least if we don't want to be frequently whipsawed by changing fashions.

Ha

 

[obgyn65]

Thank you, Ha, for clarifying.

I should probably mention that I did not start this thread to advocate any position on cholesterol, foods, statins or anything else.

 

[walkinwood]

All this stuff is confusing!

Saw the documentary Forks over Knives (available on netflix streaming) last night. They cite studies & clinical practice that shows strong links from animal-based foods to heart disease, diabetes and cancer. They advocate a whole (as in non-processed) plant based diet and posit that it can prevent & roll back these diseases.

I am going to stick to our eating habits - plenty of vegetables & whole grains with some meat and fish.

 

[haha]

What is this fear based on?


-ERD50

Here is a careful recent meta-analysis that evaluates statin therapy in high risk populations that have not had a prior heart attack.

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/170/12/1024

Conclusion This literature-based meta-analysis did not find evidence for the benefit of statin therapy on all-cause mortality in a high-risk primary prevention set-up.

There is also a link to the free full text.

Ha

 

[RAE]

I would not trust this information. Instead, please see the AAFP treatment guidelines here, with good background info : Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines Update - March 1, 2002 - American Family Physician

With all due respect, I beg to differ with the AAFP guidelines. Chris Kresser has a series of articles on heart disease, cholesterol, and statins here: Heart Disease / Cholesterol He bases his information on a whole lot of peer-reviewed medical studies. Read the articles in this series on statins, in particular, and it will give you a whole new perspective on what you are doing to your body when you take them.

 

[TromboneAl]

This was on the news the other day:

Statins and Diabetes Risk - Staying Healthy News Story - KMGH Denver

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Conclusions Statin medication use in postmenopausal women is associated with an increased risk for DM. This may be a medication class effect.

IIRC, Brian Williams said that the risk increased by 48%.
[/FONT]