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Thousands of lives could be saved by combining two cholesterol-lowering drugs, study suggests
Medical Xpress / Polish Lipid Association / Mayo Clinic Proceedings ^ | March 23, 2025 | Maciej Banach, et al

Posted on 03/30/2025 7:18:10 AM PDT by ConservativeMind

The largest analysis to examine the best way to lower levels of "bad" cholesterol in patients with blocked arteries shows that they should immediately be given a combination of a statin and another drug called ezetimibe, rather than statins alone. This could prevent thousands of deaths a year from heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases.

The meta-analysis of 108,353 patients in 14 studies who were at very high risk of suffering heart attack or stroke, or who had already suffered one of these cardiovascular events shows that when ezetimibe was combined with a high dose statin to reduce levels of LDL-C, there was a significant 19% reduction in the risk of death from any cause, a 16% reduction in deaths from cardiovascular causes, and a significant reduction in the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events or stroke by 18% and 17% respectively, compared to high doses of statins alone.

The combination therapy also significantly reduced LDL-C levels by an extra 13mg per deciliter (dL) of blood compared to statins alone, measured from the time the patient first started the treatment. This increased the chances of reaching the ideal goal of less than 70mg/dL of LDL-C by 85%.

"These results were even more pronounced in the network meta-analysis, which enables a direct comparison of different therapy regimens used in the study. This showed a 49% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 39% reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events, when compared to high-dose statin therapy alone," said Maciej Banach,

"The combination therapy is safe and efficacious; the risk of adverse events and the therapy discontinuation rate was comparable between groups. In the network meta-analysis, we showed a significant 44% reduction in the risk of discontinuation in those treated with moderately high-dose statin therapy plus ezetimibe versus a high-dose statin alone."

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: blockage; blockedarteries; ezetimibe; heart; ldl; plaque; statin; statins; stroke; zetia
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To: ConservativeMind

You are still gonna die, and statins make your legs weak and crampy.


21 posted on 03/30/2025 8:24:23 AM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and don't wish to smile.)
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To: ryderann

Most. I’m a hospice nurse.


22 posted on 03/30/2025 8:25:46 AM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and don't wish to smile.)
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To: ConservativeMind

I recently learned that some statins are hydrophilic, while others are lipophilic. If you have a particular statin concern, you might want to look up the difference.


23 posted on 03/30/2025 8:26:18 AM PDT by ChessExpert (The Democratic party must be destroyed.)
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To: MikeyB806

Bookmark


24 posted on 03/30/2025 8:28:19 AM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: BipolarBob

“...he won’t quit statins because the doctor has convinced him he will die immediately if he does.”

I stopped statins cold turkey and was back to normal within a week.


25 posted on 03/30/2025 8:30:43 AM PDT by ryderann
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BKMRK.


26 posted on 03/30/2025 8:36:53 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Doc prescribed Atorvastatin for me. Two weeks of every muscle and joint in my body hurting. No more, I chew up a baby aspirin every morning. I hope it helps people, but that stuff was poison in my body.


27 posted on 03/30/2025 8:37:33 AM PDT by kawhill (Who are you? I am you. What are you? I am you. Who and what am I then?)
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bkmk


28 posted on 03/30/2025 8:42:11 AM PDT by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31 )
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To: ConservativeMind

I have read that statins can cause liver problems as evidenced by elevated levels of enzymes ALT and AST.


29 posted on 03/30/2025 8:48:11 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Kamala defines herself in just 4 words..."Nothing comes to mind.")
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To: ConservativeMind

The entire cholesterol hoax is bull crap but a massive money maker for big pharma.


30 posted on 03/30/2025 9:00:26 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (America -- July 4, 1776 to November 3, 2020 -- R.I.P.)
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To: BipolarBob

I will take early death, thanks. Besides which, living with Alzheimers is just a waking death. You are not really “living”. You are dying? If I am going to be in a persistent dying state with zero quality of life, I would sooner just have the real thing — early death.


31 posted on 03/30/2025 9:03:23 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (America -- July 4, 1776 to November 3, 2020 -- R.I.P.)
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To: bobbo666

Nattozymes, or nattokinase, reduces fibrin. I take a small dose every morning on an empty stomach. A larger dose, too close to breakfast, messes up my digestion.

An argument, for why women tend to live longer than men, is that menstration clears out a lot of fibrin. Men and post-menopausal women might choose to take nattokinase. If you are already on a blood thinner, that further complicates matters.


32 posted on 03/30/2025 9:23:28 AM PDT by ChessExpert (The Democratic party must be destroyed.)
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To: ConservativeMind

No such thing as bad cholesterol. They’ve lied to us about cholesterol for many decades. Cholesterol has nothing, zero to do with plaque and clogged arteries. Insulin resistance causes it. Statins, the most prescribed drug, are horrible, leading cause of dementia. Much new research is being done in this area. The big cholesterol lie started with Eisenhower’s heart attack, which spawned the Framingham study. Healthy people should have very high cholesterol. I’ve been on the carnivore diet for 2 years now, and my cholesterol is through the roof. Doctors are almost ALL quacks who want us all on statins.


33 posted on 03/30/2025 9:37:30 AM PDT by genetic homophobe
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To: logi_cal869

Those numbers are similar to mine. They’ve been consistently high ever since my 20’s. I use No seed oil, use butter, tallow or bacon fat to cook. I do not tolerate statins well, even omega 3 will make my bones ache. I did have an aortic valve replaced 18 months ago, likely genetic. When they did the cath prior to the TAVR they said I had no blockages...go figure.


34 posted on 03/30/2025 9:45:16 AM PDT by lula (God is in control.)
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To: ConservativeMind
Medical uses:

Several treatment guidelines recommend adding ezetimibe in select high risk persons in whom LDL goals cannot be achieved by maximally tolerated statin alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezetimibe

35 posted on 03/30/2025 9:51:14 AM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: lula
even omega 3 will make my bones ache

Do you mean in natural form (fish) or manufactured/processed (supplement) form?

36 posted on 03/30/2025 10:00:56 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: ConservativeMind

Oh, what the hell..I’ve made it to 80 - maybe this’ll help me make it to 81.


37 posted on 03/30/2025 10:05:01 AM PDT by Chainmail (You can vote your way into Socialism - but you will have to shoot your way out.)
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To: ComputerGuy

‘We’re living proof that the stuff works’


You are still living DESPITE of statins, not thanks to statins. And with a shitty quality of life, as with all statins victims. And statins will give you so much memory loss, then Alzheimer that you won’t even know what pill you are taking, let alone know if it ‘works’ or not.

I, like many super healthy carnivores, have VLDLs in the 500 (lean mass hyper responders). According to the drug dealers in the medical establishment, we should all drop dead already. So we are the real living proof that the cholesterol scare and the statins push are all the same scam.
BTW, fun fact, high triglycerides is as correlated to coronary heart diseases as VLDL, if not more according to professor Robert Lustig, just much less studied. Yet no pill has been pushed to reduce them, do you know why? Because big pharmas never found it, all they found, by accident, is statin, a class of molecules so toxic in animals trials that the Japanese company which found it never put it on the market. Its initial discoverer, Akira Endo refuses to take it when prescribed by his doctor. The guy must know what big pharmas mean when they say “safe and effective”.


38 posted on 03/30/2025 10:14:30 AM PDT by miniTAX
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To: genetic homophobe

“I’ve been on the carnivore diet for 2 years now”


Wellcome to the club. See you at the next nutrition nonsense posted by ConservativeMind (she posts an uggly lot of them).


39 posted on 03/30/2025 10:21:44 AM PDT by miniTAX
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To: logi_cal869

Lovasa....obviously big pharma.


40 posted on 03/30/2025 10:21:56 AM PDT by lula (God is in control.)
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