The dream of all pharmaceutical company CEOs has been to develop a drug that people will need to take for a lifetime in order to control their condition. The cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have fulfilled that dream.
Stain drugs have been the biggest moneymaker in history for the pharmaceutical industry, promoted by both drug companies and physicians. But all is not as it appears.
Articles touting the advantages of statin drugs have appeared in the most prestigious medical journals in the world. But some of them have actually been written by scientists employed by pharmaceutical companies.
Amidst all of the positive article and media hoopla, the public has been denied one essential bit of information: The benefits of statin cholesterol-lowering drugs are no better than taking an aspirin a day. (Learn more by reading my special report “5 Breakthrough Medical Updates You Need to Know.”)
In fact, according to the pharmaceutical industry’s own studies, the improvements in
reducing heart attack and stroke risk are virtually the same as following an aspirin regimen.
We also are not being told that the link between elevated cholesterol levels — even LDL-cholesterol — and heart disease, is much weaker than measures of inflammation — especially highly sensitive CRP (hsCRP).
The latest studies show that inflammation is an independent risk factor for heart disease that is much stronger than any measure of cholesterol. A study of two statin drugs, atorvastatin and pravastatin, found that patients with low hsCRP levels had fewer heart attacks no matter their LDLcholesterol level, and they had more heart attacks if their hsCRP was elevated regardless of their LDLcholesterol level. The same thing has been found for stroke risk.
Few physicians who prescribe statin drugs know that the link between elevated cholesterol levels and strokes has never been established, but the link to inflammation is strong and is supported by many laboratory and clinical studies.
Why won’t the drug manufacturers and physicians who promote statin drugs just change their policy and give statin drugs only to people with increased inflammation?
It all comes down to dollars. If I make lowering cholesterol my goal — especially a drastic decrease — I can convince doctors that everyone, even children, should take
them for a lifetime. Yet, if I use hsCRP or other measures of inflammation as the criteria for prescribing statins, the drug would not be given to 75 percent to 80 percent of people presently prescribed to them. That is a massive loss of revenue.
Now that the statin promoters have admitted that inflammation, not elevated cholesterol, is the cause of atherosclerosis, we can examine ways to reduce inflammation in our bodies (and our blood vessels in particular) rather than using statin drugs.
Most chronic diseases and conditions, such as metabolic syndrome and abdominal fat, are associated with chronic inflammation. For more information on how you can boost your health and extend your life by reducing chronic inflammation, go here.
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