As promissed/warned, here is the new news on cholesterol
Friend,
For years now it has been pointed out that just as many
people
who have low cholesterol have heart attacks as those what
have
high cholesterol. This certainly explains why switching to
low
fat foods and lowering cholesterol as a whole has had little
or
no impact on heart disease over the last 30 years.
But, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world
–
statins, are used to lower cholesterol , and there is
evidence
that they do decrease heart attacks, not by very much though
(if
you are ‘at risk’ but have had no heart attack it decreases
your chances by 1%, if you’ve already had a heart attack it
helps by 4%).
http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/2008/01/statin-lottery-number-needed-to-treat.html
The strange thing is though, if you only look at people who
have
low cholesterol statins have a better effect! This means
that
they do not work by lowering blood cholesterol, and only
provides
further evidence that lowering your blood cholesterol is a
red
herring.
A researcher at Leeds University has been studying the
heart,
cholesterol and statins for some years and seems to have come
up
with an explanation. There are some tiny parts of the heart
called caveolae which NEED cholesterol to help control
heart
contraction. Statins stop cholesterol reaching this area –
thus altering the way heart muscle can contract. What is
not
known yet is if this is a good thing or a bad thing to do!
http://www.physorg.com/news109512784.html
In the end though Friend, surely it will mean a weaker heart, and
can
be no replacement for a healthy lifestyle and approach as
outlined by Dr Al Sears, in both his exercise program and
his
heart book –
http://pace.empoweredexercises.com/
Now if you go and read the new article on my blog, you’ll
know
more about cholesterol and its function in the body than
most.
http://drchrispickard.blogspot.com/
Best of Health
Dr Chris