New Cholesterol Advice Startles Even Some Doctors

[Nelson Vergel]

A lot of us are not fond of statins. They have been shown to potentially cause muscle breakdown and erectile dysfunction among other side effects. Now these guidelines come out that are startling some doctors. Is the pharmaceutical industry losing this battle now that a respected guidelines group is warning people and physicians not to over prescribe statins?

"The new guidelines, released on Tuesday by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, represent a remarkable and sudden departure from decades of advice on preventing cardiovascular disease.
According to the new advice, doctors should not put most people on cholesterol-lowering medications like statins based on cholesterol levels alone. And, despite decades of being urged to do so, patients need not monitor their cholesterol once they start taking medication. The guidelines do not even set target levels for LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/h...-advice-startles-even-some-doctors.html?_r=1&

 

[JWSimpkins]

A lot of us are not fond of statins. They have been shown to potentially cause muscle breakdown and erectile dysfunction among other side effects. Now these guidelines come out that are startling some doctors. Is the pharmaceutical industry losing this battle now that a respected guidelines group is warning people and physicians not to over prescribe statins?

"The new guidelines, released on Tuesday by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, represent a remarkable and sudden departure from decades of advice on preventing cardiovascular disease.
According to the new advice, doctors should not put most people on cholesterol-lowering medications like statins based on cholesterol levels alone. And, despite decades of being urged to do so, patients need not monitor their cholesterol once they start taking medication. The guidelines do not even set target levels for LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/h...-advice-startles-even-some-doctors.html?_r=1&

WOW! I can't wait to see how the pharmaceutical companies spin this.

 

[Dave Barry]

Nelson,

"Dr. Steven L. Zweibel, the director of cardiac electrophysiology at Hartford Hospital, is perplexed by new guidelines on preventing heart disease and strokes, which were released by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. "The new recommendations represent a remarkable and sudden departure from decades of advice on preventing cardiovascular disease."

What's perplexing is that many of these so-called "experts" are so far behind times as far as testing cholesterol levels. The present standard for testing cholesterol levels, is similar to using Tsh levels as the main determinant for hypo/hyper-thyroidism. Dr. Sinatra as well as many other Cardiologists, have pointed out that cholesterol fractionation, along with a subfractionated lipid panel is a much more precise method of determining your risk of heart disease. Therefore, when more precise tests become available, it only makes sense to re-evaluate the problem from a new perspective. Consequently, it's likely that a major fight is going to ensue between Big Pharma, hospitals, and doctors as improved testing will likely drastically decrease the need for statins; thereby, costing some very influential people literally millions (if not billions) of profits. Therefore, don't expect the use of statins to significantly drop before the battle of profits is fought.

However, this is another case that shows that it pays for patients (consumers) to act as their own advocate of their health and well-being. There is no doubt that physicians are highly educated individuals, whom deserve our respect, but they cannot be expected to always be in the forefront of all the latest advances in the world of science. Therefore, we all need to do our part, by educating each other as we do here on Excelmale so that we can make better informed decisions that directly impact our health. Regardless, the results may cost many politically powerful businesses astronomical amounts of money if the medical community changes their methods for testing as well as prescribing statins.


Modern Tests More Accurately Define Individual Heart Disease Risk
"Dr. Sinatra points out that today there are far more sophisticated tests that can differentiate different kinds of cholesterol to determine your heart disease risk based on your individual cholesterol makeup, as opposed to trying to squeeze everyone into a specific total cholesterol range."

"He urges every clinician to use a cholesterol fractionation test these days, along with a subfractionated lipid panel. The first measures total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. The subfractionated lipid panel further differentiates the various subclasses of Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL), meaning it measures your mean particle size, and that can make all the difference in the world."

"If you fractionate the LDL, and discover that you have what Dr. Sinatra refers to as "fluffy" LDL, in other words, large buoyant LDL particles that are not oxidized, and therefore not inflammatory, then having a high LDL level is not a concern in terms of heart disease risk. These LDL's, while conventionally thought of as "bad" cholesterol, are actually harmless. Small-particle LDL's on the other hand, are more inflammatory, and because of their tiny size can get stuck and cause problems in your arteries."

"I still wouldn't treat small particle LDL in the absence of any documented coronary disease," Dr. Sinatra says. "I would use niacin (as Nelson previously pointed out) for example. Niacin can change small particle LDL and make it fluffy. Certainly, the tocotrienols—I've had good luck with delta tocotrienol. Even nattokinase. I have seen it not only thinning the blood but [also]… LDL becoming more buoyant.
I would reserve statin drugs for, again, documented cases of coronary artery disease and again particularly middle-aged males. If I did have cholesterol problems or inflammatory cholesterol subtypes, I would try to treat the patient with weight loss and exercise and nutraceutical support first, before I would consider a statin drug."
Two Ratios that are Potent Indicators of Heart Disease

"Additionally, the following two ratios are far better indicators of heart disease risk than total cholesterol alone:
Your HDL/Cholesterol ratio-- HDL percentage is a very potent heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol. This percentage should ideally be above 24 percent. Below 10 percent, it's a significant indicator of risk for heart disease.
Your Triglyceride/HDL ratios—divide your triglycerides by your HDL level. This percentage should ideally be below 2."

 

[JWSimpkins]

 

[Dave Barry]

"WOW! I can't wait to see how the pharmaceutical companies spin this." JW, you said in one sentence what took me a page to describe

 

[JWSimpkins]

"WOW! I can't wait to see how the pharmaceutical companies spin this." JW, you said in one sentence what took me a page to describe

Ha! I'm sometimes a man of few words, but your description was spot on.

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

I divided my HDL by cholesterol and came out with 16% then did trig's and HDL and came out with 4.6 not sure what that means.. i guess i am moderate to high risk.

 

[Dave Barry]

How did big Pharma spin the new evidence that statins are over-prescribed?

*Cardiologists on Big Pharma kickbacks release new statin drug guidelines in effort to double prescriptions. Apparently, when in doubt, double-up the prescriptions!
http://www.naturalnews.com/042963_statin_drugs_Big_Pharma_cardiologist_kickbacks.html#ixzz2l7yCKpwE