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Inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase (statins) are widely used medications for reduction of cholesterol levels. Statin use significantly reduces risk of cardiovascular disease but has also been associated with lower risk of other diseases and conditions, including dementia. However, some reports suggest that statins also have detrimental effects on the brain......Our data suggest that simvastatin and pravastatin differentially affect expression of genes involved in neurodegeneration and that statin-dependent gene expression regulation is cell type specific (excerpted)

Researchers searching for a cure for obesity said on Thursday they have developed a drug that not only makes mice lose weight, but reverses diabetes and lowers their cholesterol, too. The drug, which they have dubbed fatostatin, stops the body from making fat, instead releasing the energy from food. They hope it may lead to a pill that would fight obesity, diabetes and cholesterol, all at once. Writing in the journal Chemistry and Biology, Salih Wakil of Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, Motonari Uesugi of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues said the drug interferes with a suite of...

When you put Democrats in charge, stupid things happen. Remember those words. Every few days you will see something on the news to remind you that they are true. Like Cheerios. The new Democrat-controlled Food and Drug Administration has decided that Cheerios are a drug and are under its control. That’s one of the dominant themes of Change You Can Believe In. Control. The government takes control, you lose control. The government gets more powerful, you get less free. Now it extends to breakfast cereal. Having taken over General Motors, now the Democrats want to take over General Mills. At...

WASHINGTON — A rare genetic abnormality found in people in an insular Amish community protects them from heart disease, a discovery that could lead to new drugs to prevent heart ailments, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. About 5 percent of Old Order Amish people in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County have only one working copy rather than the normal two of a gene that makes a protein that slows the breakdown of triglycerides, a type of fat that circulates in the blood, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. "People who have the mutation all have low triglycerides," said Toni Pollin of...

Healthy food can make an individual more susceptible to diseases, according to a new controversial book. In the book titled, 'Trick and Treat: How Healthy Eating Is Making Us Ill,' author Barry Groves claims that healthy eating can sometimes fail to keep an individual hale and hearty. "Most people are eating in a way that is unnatural to us as a species," the Telegraph quoted Barry, who holds a doctorate in nutritional science, as saying. "We're a carnivorous species - our gut is identical to that of a big cat. Yet we're encouraged to eat foods that have been padded...

MUNICH, GERMANY (AP) - Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday. Chronic heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently around the body.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)-If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects. The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight....

The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems. The new guidelines were to be issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday. The push to aggressively screen and medicate for high cholesterol in children is certain to create controversy amid a continuing debate about the use of prescription drugs in children as well as the best approaches to ward off heart disease in adults. But proponents say there is growing evidence that the first signs...

Low Levels Of Good Cholesterol Linked To Memory Loss, Dementia Risk ScienceDaily (July 1, 2008) — Low levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) -- the "good" cholesterol -- in middle age may increase the risk of memory loss and lead to dementia later in life, researchers reported in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association. Observing 3,673 participants (26.8 percent women) from the Whitehall II study, researchers found that falling levels of HDL cholesterol were predictors of declining memory by age 60. Whitehall II, which began in 1985, is long-term health examination of more than 10,000 British...

Cholesterol genes 'protect heart' Cholesterol appears to play a key role in heart disease A third of the population have genes that could help them in the fight against heart disease, say scientists. A study of 147,000 patients suggests that certain types of the CETP gene might increase the levels of so-called "good" cholesterol. UK and Dutch research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found a 5% cut in heart attacks for those with the key types. A UK geneticist said it could point to drugs which help many more people. What it does provide are...

Blood Cholesterol Levels Predict Risk Of Heart Disease Due To Hormone Therapy, Study Shows ScienceDaily (May 25, 2008) — A research study has found that a simple blood test may indicate whether post-menopausal hormone therapies present an elevated risk of a heart attack. The study, part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, was conducted in 40 centers nationwide and included 271 cases of coronary heart disease in the first four years of the trials of estrogen alone and of estrogen plus progestin. Paul F. Bray,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said Monday it was voluntarily withdrawing advertising for its Lipitor cholesterol drug featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart, because its ads led to "misimpressions." ads involving Jarvik had come under scrutiny, including from a House Committee as part of an investigation into celebrity endorsements of prescription medicines. Democratic lawmakers had voiced concern that Jarvik's qualifications were misrepresented in widely seen television commercials touting the blockbuster drug. They said he seemed to be dispensing medical advice even though he is not a practicing physician. On his Web site, Jarvik describes himself...

THE idea that cholesterol plays a key role in heart disease is so tightly woven into modern medical thinking that it is no longer considered open to question. This is the message that emerged all too clearly from the recent news that the drug Vytorin had fared no better in clinical trials than the statin therapy it was meant to supplant. Vytorin is a combination of cholesterol-lowering drugs, one called Zetia and the other a statin called Zocor. Because the two drugs lower LDL cholesterol by different mechanisms, the makers of Vytorin (Merck and Schering-Plough) assumed that their double-barreled therapy...

Correction Appended For decades, the theory that lowering cholesterol is always beneficial has been a core principle of cardiology. It has been accepted by doctors and used by drug makers to win quick approval for new medicines to reduce cholesterol. But now some prominent cardiologists say the results of two recent clinical trials have raised serious questions about that theory — and the value of two widely used cholesterol-lowering medicines, Zetia and its sister drug, Vytorin. Other new cholesterol-fighting drugs, including one that Merck hopes to begin selling this year, may also require closer scrutiny, they say. “The idea that...

Every day millions of people swallow Zetia and Vytorin in the hopes of reducing their risk of heart attacks and strokes, generating $5 billion a year in sales for Merck and Schering-Plough, which produce them. Do they work?Despite millions of prescriptions, no study has ever shown that these $3-a-day pills prevent heart attacks, strokes or deaths any better than just taking older drugs like Pfizer's (nyse: PFE - news - people ) Lipitor or Merck's (nyse: MRK - news - people ) off-patent Zocor, even though they're proven cholesterol fighters. That's why a two-year delay in a 720-person study aimed...

Researchers at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, have found a way to reduce the amount of bad cholesterol and fatty acids that end up in the blood from food the body metabolizes, a key discovery that could lead to new drugs to treat and reverse the effects of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease related to obesity. In a series of recently published articles,* Dr. Richard Lehner and his colleagues report they successfully decreased the level of LDL (low-density lipids) – the so-called bad cholesterol – and triglycerides in the blood of mice and hamsters by manipulating a...

Surprise -- Cholesterol May Actually Pose Benefits, Study Shows ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2008) — If you’re worried about high cholesterol levels and keeping heart-healthy as you get older, don’t push aside bacon and eggs just yet. A new study says they might actually provide a benefit. Researchers at Texas A&M University have discovered that lower cholesterol levels can actually reduce muscle gain with exercising. Lead investigator Steven Riechman, assistant professor of health and kinesiology, and Simon Sheather, head of the Department of Statistics, along with colleagues from The Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine,...

Oatmeal's Health Claims Reaffirmed, Study Suggests ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — A new scientific review of the most current research shows the link between eating oatmeal and cholesterol reduction to be stronger than when the FDA initially approved the health claim's appearance on food labels in 1997. Dr. James W. Anderson, professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, co-authors "The Oatmeal-Cholesterol Connection: 10 Years Later" in the January/February 2008 issue of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. Anderson presents a contemporary analysis to determine if newer studies are consistent with the original conclusion...

A substance derived from yeast is being tested in Israel as a potential oral treatment for diabetes and its complications. The substance -- glucose tolerance factor, or GTF -- offers promise of inhibiting oxidation processes that can result in strokes and heart attacks. GTF given at early stage of diabetes may prevent or delay renal complications as well as cataracts and retinal damage. "The research is now at the stage where the substance has been successfully tested on diabetic rats and was found to reduce sugar and lipids in the blood of the treated animals," research leader Nitsa Mirsky of...

American Heart Association meeting report ORLANDO, Nov. 7 — A cholesterol-lowering drug appears to disrupt sleep patterns of some patients, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2007. “The findings are significant because sleep problems can affect quality of life and may have adverse health consequences, such as promoting weight gain and insulin resistance,” said Beatrice Golomb, M.D., lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine and family and preventive medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. In the largest study of its kind, researchers compared two types of cholesterol-lowering...

Use of cholesterol and blood pressure medicines by young adults appears to be rising rapidly — at a faster pace than among senior citizens, according to an industry report being released Tuesday. Experts point to higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol problems among young people. Also, doctors are getting more aggressive with preventive treatments. "This is good news, that more people in this age range are taking these medicines," said Dr. Daniel W. Jones, president of the American Heart Association. Still, he said many more people should be on the drugs that lower cholesterol or blood...

On June 19, 1987, Ben & Jerry’s introduced Cherry Garcia, in honor of the man who played lead guitar for the Grateful Dead. The Food and Drug Administration struck back three months later, when it approved the first of a new family of statin drugs that curb cholesterol production in the human liver. A synthetic statin licensed a decade later would become the most lucrative drug in history. At its peak, Lipitor was streaming $14 billion a year into Pfizer’s coffers. Let’s not blame the victim: we don’t choose Cherry Garcia; it chooses us. Lipitor is a lifesaver for 600,000...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Merck & Co's (NYSE:MRK - News) combination pill to raise "good" HDL cholesterol with less facial flushing -- a common side effect of HDL drugs -- met its main goals in a late-stage test, researchers said on Sunday. Merck believes the favorable results should sway patients, who now shun HDL-boosting drugs because of bothersome flushing, to stick with treatment that may cut their risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems. Analysts reckon that could make Cordaptive, which may get to market in 2008, an eventual multibillion-dollar-a-year seller. But Steven Nissen, a top U.S. cardiologist at the...

Senior Citizen Health & Medicine Diabetes Patients Fixate on Blood Sugar and Neglect What May Kill Them Most die from heart disease and should focus on cholesterol, other protection Aug. 20, 2007 – Diabetes is high on the radar for senior citizens, who are well aware of the increase of this chronic and deadly disease, and because few do not have friends whose lives have been forever negatively changed the rituals of diabetes care and management. Although high blood pressure and arthritis are the most prominent chronic conditions for older Americans, type 2 diabetes, apparently fueled by the obesity epidemic,...

The combination activates genes that can cause clogged arteries, UCLA researchers say. By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer July 26, 2007 Strengthening the link between air pollution and cardiovascular disease, new research suggests that people with high cholesterol are especially vulnerable to heart disease when they are exposed to diesel exhaust and other ultra-fine particles that are common pollutants in urban air. "Their combination creates a dangerous synergy that wreaks cardiovascular havoc far beyond what's caused by the diesel or cholesterol alone," said Dr. André Nel, chief of nanomedicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a...

NEW YORK: US researchers say that lowering cholesterol levels with statins, a class of drugs, might increase the risk of cancer. The researchers who studied 40,000 people, however, could not say if this was a side effect of the drugs or due to the low cholesterol. Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that occurs naturally in all parts of the body. Our body needs some cholesterol to work properly. But if the substance increases in blood, it can stick to the walls of arteries. This is called plaque, which can narrow arteries or even block them. There are two types...

Researchers have long known that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol appear to be less likely to develop heart disease. Much of the benefit has been attributed to the higher levels of HDL cholesterol — often referred to as the “good” cholesterol — found in moderate drinkers. The lipoproteins in this kind of cholesterol are believed to help the body fight off heart disease. But a new study suggests that alcohol may play another role in cholesterol and health. Moderate drinking may encourage the formation of larger lipoprotein particles in both HDL and LDL, the “bad” cholesterol associated with...

Dr. Russel Blaylock explains how to reduce inflamation. Get the full story about cholesterol.

The deeper I go into it, the fishier statins seem to become James.LeFanu@telegraph.co.uk, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:25pm BST 31/03/2007 Second opinion Statins again, whose mass prescription is turning out to be much more serious (and sinister) than I could have supposed. The response to my last two columns has been, almost literally, overwhelming, so why are doctors apparently so unaware of the devastating symptoms they can cause? The British Heart Foundation (whose chairman, Professor Peter Weissberg accused me last week of being "easily led" on this matter) claims that statins have "minimal side effects" compared to those taking controlled...

NEW ORLEANS -- The hot new strategy of trying to prevent heart disease by raising good cholesterol had more setbacks Monday as new studies showed that experimental drugs didn't work and also had safety problems. The news follows Pfizer Inc.'s abandonment in December of an $800 million investment in torcetrapib, the leading contender in this class of drugs, because it raised the risk of heart attacks and deaths. Heart specialists have been anxious to know whether the problems extend to all such drugs and doom this approach. "A lot of people think it's the next big thing, and we'll need...

Garlic May Not Lower CholesterolStudy Shows No Improvement In Cholesterol Levels From Raw Garlic Or Garlic Supplements (WebMD) Garlic may not improve the cholesterol profiles of people with moderately high levels of "bad" cholesterol, a new study shows. The researchers tested raw garlic and two different garlic supplements on nearly 200 adults with moderately high levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol. After six months, the patients showed no improvements in their average cholesterol or other blood fats (lipids), no matter what kind of garlic they had consumed. "Garlic supplements or dietary garlic in reasonable doses are unlikely to produce lipid benefits"...

Perhaps you heard it? The wail last month from the labs of heart researchers and the offices of Wall Street analysts? Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant, halted late-stage trials of a cholesterol drug called torcetrapib after investigators discovered that it increased heart problems — and death rates — in the test population. Torcetrapib wasn’t just another scientific misfire; the drug was to have been a blockbuster heralding the transformation of cardiovascular care. Statin drugs like simvastatin (sold as Zocor) and atorvastatin (Lipitor) lower blood levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, thereby slowing the buildup of plaque in the arteries....

Niacin expected to grow as heart treatment CLEVELAND, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A Cleveland doctor says use of niacin as a cholesterol drug is likely to increase following the failure of a drug that was found to increase heart problems. Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the famed Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology, said niacin, a B vitamin that raises HDL, commonly known as good cholesterol, is likely to increase in prominence after trials of the Pfizer Inc. cholesterol drug torcetrapib failed, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Raising HDL levels in patients helps to...

Source: Society of Chemical Industry Date: January 18, 2007 New Study To Test Statin-Parkinson's Link Science Daily — Researchers are sufficiently worried by new study results that they are planning clinical trials involving thousands of people to examine the possible link between Parkinson's disease and statins, the world biggest selling drugs, reports Patrick Walter in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Suggestions of a statin link are not new, but the results of a recent study linking low LDL cholesterol to Parkinson's provide the strongest evidence to date that it could be real, because statins work by reducing...

Close window Published online: 6 December 2006; | doi:10.1038/news061204-8 Why did a promising heart drug fail?Doomed drug highlights complications of meddling with cholesterol.Helen Pearson High-density lipoproteins may be good for you, but at least one drug that acts on them is not.Hybrid Medical Animation / Science Photo Library The failure of a high-profile cholesterol drug has thrown a spotlight on the complicated machinery that regulates cholesterol levels. But many researchers remain confident that drugs to boost levels of 'good' cholesterol are still one of the most promising means to combat spiralling heart disease. Drug company Pfizer announced on 2...

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a protein interaction that may explain how the deadly Huntington's disease affects the brain. The findings, published in and featured on the cover of the current issue of Human Molecular Genetics, show how the mutated Huntington's protein interacts with another protein to cause dramatic accumulation of cholesterol in the brain. "Cholesterol is essential for promoting the connection network among brain cells and in maintaining their membrane integrity. Both the level of cholesterol and its delivery to the proper locations in the cell are essential for the survival of neurons," explains Mayo Clinic molecular biologist Cynthia...

A provocative review paper published this month has raised questions about the aggressive cholesterol-lowering recommendations made two years ago by a government panel. The panel, the National Cholesterol Education Program, urged patients at risk for heart disease to reduce sharply their harmful LDL cholesterol and to try to reach specific, very low levels. Though the authors of the new paper, published in the Oct. 3 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, endorse the use of cholesterol-lowering statins, they say there is not enough solid scientific evidence to support the target numbers for LDL cholesterol set forth by the government panel....

Reversing a strategy that had drawn criticism from doctors, Pfizer says that it will apply for approval to sell a promising new heart treatment as a standalone pill — rather than only in combination with Lipitor, Pfizer’s best-selling cholesterol treatment. The new drug, torcetrapib, is still being tested in clinical trials and is at least 18 months from federal approval. But cardiologists say it has the potential to become a significant new treatment for heart disease. Clinical trials show that torcetrapib substantially raises the levels of so-called good cholesterol, a novel approach to preventing heart attacks and strokes. Wall Street...

LONDON (Reuters) - Diabetics are at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, one of the world's biggest killers, 15 years earlier than other people, according to a scientist on Friday. So a person with diabetes aged 40 has the same odds of having a stroke or heart attack as a healthy person of 55. "Diabetes confers the same risk of cardiovascular disease as aging 15 years," said Gillian Booth of the Institute of Clinical Evaluation Sciences in Toronto, in an interview. But she added that not all people with diabetes are at high risk. Those that are do not reach the...

AP MEDICAL WRITER CHICAGO -- German research casts doubt on the effectiveness of a sugar cane-based ingredient sold as a cholesterol treatment in One-A-Day vitamins and other products marketed in dozens of countries. The substance, called policosanol, worked no better than dummy pills in German adults with high levels of LDL cholesterol, the bad kind that can clog arteries and lead to heart problems. Even in high doses, policosanol derived from Cuban sugar cane produced no meaningful changes in cholesterol levels during 12 weeks of treatment, said lead author Dr. Heiner Berthold of the German Medical Association's drug commission. Most...

IT'S never pleasant to learn that an artificial substance in your food might be ruining your health. This is what happened with trans fats when they were "discovered" in the food supply a few years ago, after a high-profile lawsuit against the makers of the Oreo cookie (laden with trans fats, who knew?) captured headlines nationwide. The publicity pushed the Food and Drug Administration to require that trans fats be listed on package labels starting this year. Producers of cookies, cakes, crackers, frozen foods and margarines, all high in trans fats, thus had an incentive to eliminate them from their...

TORONTO - Maybe your doctor should write up a grocery list to help lower your cholesterol, suggests a small study that showed a rigid diet seemed as effective as cholesterol-lowering pills. Of course, sticking to that diet may not be easy. "People interested in lowering their cholesterol should probably acquire a taste for tofu and oatmeal," said study co-author David Jenkins of the University of Toronto. The study, published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was funded in part by almond promoters and a major food company. Jenkins, Canadian research chair in metabolism and nutrition at Toronto,...

AP MEDICAL WRITER ATLANTA -- People in a new study got their "bad cholesterol" to the lowest levels ever seen and saw blockages in their blood vessels shrink by taking a high dose of cholesterol drug, researchers reported Monday. Doctors say it is the best evidence yet that heart disease actually can be reversed, not just kept from getting worse. Two-thirds of the 349 study participants had regression of heart artery buildups when they took the maximum dose of Crestor, the strongest of the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs on the market and one under fire by a consumer group that contends...

Policosanol and Cholesterol Revisited Policosanol, a mixture of waxy alcohols derived from sugar cane, rice bran oil, or wheat germ oil, has remarkable benefits for atherosclerosis that go beyond lowering cholesterol. Doctors recommend statin drugs to lower cholesterol, often even for people with normal serum levels, noting that these drugs have other benefits in stabilizing plaque and protecting endothelial cells. A friend told me that she lowered her cholesterol from 224 to 178 by taking policosanol, but her doctor was concerned that she might not be getting “all the benefits” of statins (but of course she was also avoiding the...

Eating veggie burgers and tofu to lower "bad" cholesterol may not help, a new review of soy's health benefits suggests. The American Heart Association reviewed 22 randomized trials comparing soy protein and the soy component isoflavone to milk or other proteins. The majority of the trials concluded soy led to an average decrease in LDL or "bad" cholesterol levels of just three per cent. "This reduction is very small relative to the large amount of soy protein tested in these studies, averaging 50 grams, about half the usual total daily protein intake," the committee wrote in the Jan. 17 online...

In 1980, a man from a small town called Limone Sul Garda in northern Italy went to a doctor for some problem, not heart related. Testing of his blood showed very high levels of triglycerides, and very low levels of HDL, the good form of cholesterol. By all rights, the man should have either been dead from, or in imminent danger of a heart attack. But his arteries were clear. Analysis of his blood showed he had a very special form of Lipoprotein, a type of HDL. And further work with this particular type of Lipoprotein revealed astounding results. In...

WASHINGTON - Roll over oats: Breakfast cereals and other foods that contain barley also will be able to start claiming they can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The disease kills 500,000 Americans a year. Labels on whole barley and dry milled barley products, including flakes, grits, flour and meal, are expected to start making the claim, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday in announcing its ruling. The claim is identical to that already made on many oat products. The FDA estimates a quarter of the hot breakfast cereals, and another 5 percent of the cold cereals, sold...

Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people )'s new HDL elevator, a drug developed to raise "good" cholesterol in the body, "complicates the cholesterol market" said Merrill Lynch analyst David Risinger in a report Friday. Hank McKinnell, the chief executive of Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ), indicated recently that the company's "torcetrapip/Lipitor combination is a $10 billion opportunity" for Pfizer. Risinger said he believes Merck's new HDL elevator, MK-0524A, which Merck discussed at an analyst meeting Thursday, "introduces a new level of commercial risk" for Pfizer's combination LDL/HDL product, "which is the primary pipeline product expected to...

AP MEDICAL WRITER CHICAGO -- Despite the sharp rise in obesity in the United States, cholesterol levels in older Americans have fallen markedly over the past 40 years, mainly because of the introduction of statin drugs in the late 1980s, a government study found. Statins - which include such widely used medicines as Lipitor, Zocor and Pravachol - can dramatically reduce levels of LDL cholesterol, the bad kind that can clog arteries and lead to heart attacks. The drop in Americans' overall cholesterol levels resulted from a decline in LDL. Between 1960 and 2002, average total cholesterol levels for men...

I would like to finally clear up the issue of "steroids" that athletes and body builders shoot or ingest to enhance their performance and what they represent. As you all can see from the above diagrams, the sex hormones and cortisone all bear a striking resemblance to that devil molecule, cholesterol. Coinkydink? Not a chance. As a matter of fact, our bodies manufacture all of these hormones starting out with cholesterol--either the cholesterol from our diet or the cholesterol that we make ourselves. Depending upon the specific enzymes that we have and their relative amounts, we turm cholesterol into the...