Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I can’t believe it! Did you see the headlines suggesting that if we take statin drugs prophylactically we will reduce our risk of heart disease? A study out of the New England Journal of Medicine was picked up by the major news outlets that if healthy people without elevated cholesterol but elevated C-Reactive Protein (CRP) take Crestor then it reduces their risk of having a heart attack. Read the rest of this entry
Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 10:50 am
Even though pharmaceutical companies are pushing statins on the general population through physicians – and you may have been pressured to take statins by your doctor you can still “just say no”. First of all there is not much compelling evidence that statins actually reduce your chances of getting vascular disease. However, there is clear evidence that statins can reduce your cholesterol levels. So what statins are doing is treating a number, not reducing chances of a functional disease outcome. There is plenty of information out there about the cholesterol myth so I will not repeat it here. You can read it and decide for yourself. Of course, there are cases where statins are necessary but they are just a small percentage of the number of people that are treated with these potentially deleterious drugs. Read the rest of this entry