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The selling of a disease
Canada Free Press ^ | 08/12/14 | Patrick D Hahn

Posted on 08/12/2014 9:21:41 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony

“MY SPIRIT IS BROKEN” Will the New Statin Guidelines Do More Harm Than Good?

Part 1: A $29-billion-dollar-a-year industry

When he was nearing the end of his career, Henry Gadsden, then-CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck, gave an interview to Fortune magazine in which he said that he regretted that he couldn’t sell drugs to healthy people. He said his dream was to be able to peddle his company’s wares to everybody, like chewing gum giant Wrigley’s.

Mr. Gadsden’s dream soon began to come true. A few years earlier, Japanese biochemist Doctor Akira Endo surmised that a compound that could inhibit the production of cholesterol could be used to treat or prevent Cardiovascular Disease, CVD, then as now the number-one killer in the developed world. He also reasoned that since cholesterol was such an essential, life-sustaining substance, natural selection would favor microorganisms that could produce a poison to prevent its synthesis, enabling them to kill off competing microbes. He was right. The first statin, mevastatin, proved too toxic for human use, but senior officials at Merck got wind of Dr. Endo’s discovery, and the race was on.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: cardiovascular; fda; statin
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To: MrEdd
tirades against people who post articles excerpts from sources outside the legacy papers and broadcasters blogs.

Fixed it for you.

Try to keep up.

21 posted on 08/12/2014 10:29:46 AM PDT by humblegunner
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To: Uncle Miltie

I have looked at those stats and the real numbers are something else. In reality you are talking about a half to one point and yet they make they make it look like a 50% reduction somehow.


22 posted on 08/12/2014 10:30:16 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: Sean_Anthony

There is a simple blood test we can take, which is as accurate in males and more accurate with females re potential heart problems than high cholestrol levels.

That test is: “C-Reactive Protein, Cardiac test.

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-disease-c-reactive-protein-crp-testing

C-reactive protein — or CRP — appears to be correlated to heart disease risk. Inflammation (swelling) of the arteries has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.

Doctors can test your blood for CRP. The body produces CRP during the general process of inflammation. Therefore, CRP is a “marker” for inflammation, meaning its presence indicates an increased state of inflammation in the body.

C-Reactive Protein and Heart Disease Risk

In studies involving large numbers of patients, CRP levels seem to be correlated with levels of heart disease risk. In fact, CRP seems to predict cardiovascular risk at least as well as cholesterol levels do. Data from the Physicians Health Study, a clinical trial involving 18,000 apparently healthy doctors, found that elevated levels of CRP were associated with a threefold increase in the risk of heart attack.

In the Harvard Women’s Health Study, results of the CRP test were more accurate than cholesterol levels in predicting heart problems. Twelve different markers of inflammation were studied in healthy, postmenopausal women. After three years, CRP was the strongest predictor of risk. Women in the group with the highest CRP levels were more than four times as likely to have died from coronary disease, or to have suffered a nonfatal heart attack or stroke compared to those with the lowest levels. This group was also more likely to have required a cardiac procedure such as angioplasty (a procedure that opens clogged arteries with the use of a flexible tube) or bypass surgery than women in the group with the lowest levels.”

Personally, I recently had my cardio doc order this test to get my primary MD of my back re my somewhat high VLDL and triglycerides levels. The cardio doc got involved when my PC doc discovere a mild congential heart murmur. Most of the time it isn’t heard. Several Navy MDs never heard it, it was never heard in insurance and company physicals, nor did my previous PC for 3 decades hear it, nor did his office RN, trained as an ICU nurse ever hear it. She is also my wife, and she has never heard the murmur.

My C-Reactive Protein, Cardiac test level this month was .016, which as about as low as one can be.


23 posted on 08/12/2014 10:43:51 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Liberals are afraid that the rumor of voter fraud enforcement will prevent voter fraud!)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

“I have looked at those stats and the real numbers are something else. In reality you are talking about a half to one point and yet they make they make it look like a 50% reduction somehow.”

Those stats remind me of the stats the Obozo administration uses to lie about our jobless rates and our so called booming economy.

Anyone trying to use stats like those to write a thesis get a MBA would be laughed at by their professors.


24 posted on 08/12/2014 10:47:09 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Liberals are afraid that the rumor of voter fraud enforcement will prevent voter fraud!)
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To: EDINVA; humblegunner
If you take away the links to /excerpts from other sites, what/s left?

I could have written poorly what I was trying to say. 1. Some sites require FR to link to them. That's a legal issue and we're told which sites they are. That doesn't mean, however, that we have to post a mindless excerpt. We can do our fellow freepers a favor by going into those articles and finding the key 1 or 2 paragraphs and posting those as the link, so that the person really gets the gist of the article without having to go to the link. If we just post the first few lines or the first paragraph, we normally aren't helping anyone get a real grasp of the article. 2. Some sites do NOT require a link. There is no reason to publish only an excerpt to those sites. If they wanted that, they'd notify JimRob and he'd require only a link. They probably believe they'll get more traffic become popular sources than forcing someone over to their site to finish and article. 3. Sometimes we have representatives of other sites or authors of other articles come on FR and post an article and give only a link and/or an excerpt...EVEN THOUGH the site doesn't demand ONLY a link. That is similar to someone coming into your restaurant and telling folks to go next door to a different restaurant. That's just trying to steal customers. 4. Sometimes folks post articles and never join in the commentary. Their job is to post their link on countless sites every day to generate traffic for their site. It's similar to those who post things like "I made $1000 a day just selling diet pills....check it out at dietpill.org" I was not trying to say, "Don't post links." I was trying to say, "Don't post unnecessary links without good reason, and be responsible to join in the conversation."

25 posted on 08/12/2014 10:53:32 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

You are getting your science mixed up. There is a lot of evidence that increased serum LDL cholesterol is related to heart disease. You are confusing that with the evidence that eating cholestorol causes heart disease.

Not only does the research show that serum LDL is related to heart disease, there is experimental research that shows lowering serum LDL with certain medications reduces the risk of heart disease, and some indication that it may also lower cancer risk. 


26 posted on 08/12/2014 10:56:25 AM PDT by dangerdoc ((this space for rent))
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To: xzins

Well put.


27 posted on 08/12/2014 10:56:30 AM PDT by humblegunner
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To: EDINVA; humblegunner
SORRY...I forgot the formatting

If you take away the links to /excerpts from other sites, what/s left?

I could have written poorly what I was trying to say.

1. Some sites require FR to link to them. That's a legal issue and we're told which sites they are. That doesn't mean, however, that we have to post a mindless excerpt. We can do our fellow freepers a favor by going into those articles and finding the key 1 or 2 paragraphs and posting those as the link, so that the person really gets the gist of the article without having to go to the link. If we just post the first few lines or the first paragraph, we normally aren't helping anyone get a real grasp of the article.

2. Some sites do NOT require a link. There is no reason to publish only an excerpt to those sites. If they wanted that, they'd notify JimRob and he'd require only a link. They probably believe they'll get more traffic becoming popular sources than forcing someone over to their site to finish an article.

3. Sometimes we have representatives of other sites or authors of other articles come on FR and post an article and give only a link and/or an excerpt...EVEN THOUGH the site doesn't demand ONLY a link. That is similar to someone coming into your restaurant and telling folks to go next door to a different restaurant. That's just trying to steal customers.

4. Sometimes folks post articles and never join in the commentary. Their job is to post their link on countless sites every day to generate traffic for their site. It's similar to those who post things like "I made $1000 a day just selling diet pills....check it out at dietpill.org"

I was not trying to say, "Don't post links." I was trying to say, "Don't post unnecessary links without good reason, and be responsible to join in the conversation."

28 posted on 08/12/2014 11:01:01 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: humblegunner

No, because it is obvious that he likes the articles.


29 posted on 08/12/2014 11:09:10 AM PDT by tiki
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To: EDINVA
If you take away the links to /excerpts from other sites, what/s left?

It is Jim's web site. He has said:

I have no complaint if a good conservative blogger posts his own material to FR, not as an excerpt to drive hits and discussion back to his blog, but rather to impart useful information to OUR readers and to promote and join in on the discussion and conservative activism HERE on FR.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2636843/posts?page=552#552

30 posted on 08/12/2014 11:09:28 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: humblegunner

It does occur to me to wonder why some are always complaining, do they do it to get attention? Or are they just objectionable people?


31 posted on 08/12/2014 11:11:58 AM PDT by tiki
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To: tiki
It does occur to me to wonder why some are always complaining, do they do it to get attention?

I don't know, you tell me.

Why exactly are you complaining?

32 posted on 08/12/2014 11:15:48 AM PDT by humblegunner
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To: tiki
It does occur to me to wonder why some are always complaining excerpting, do they do it to get their blog attention?
33 posted on 08/12/2014 11:22:53 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: xzins

I read right thru typos and lack of formatting!

I wish there were a way sincere folks could post, however improperly, however often, however ungrammatically, without being jumped on, while those who post for spurious reasons could be banned.


34 posted on 08/12/2014 11:52:50 AM PDT by EDINVA
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To: EDINVA

If you read through the bad formatting then you get the prize of the day for having good eyesight. When it gets all jumbled together, I have trouble even seeing it.

I, too, wish that only sincere folks posted. It would make Free Republic time a lot more productive.


35 posted on 08/12/2014 1:42:33 PM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins

Thanks.

The modern brain cannot handle more than 3 sentences in a paragraph.

My brain has gone modern on me.


36 posted on 08/12/2014 7:05:04 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (There can be no Victory without a fight and no battle without wounds)
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To: P-Marlowe

Modern....or....old age creeping up? LOL!


37 posted on 08/13/2014 5:11:16 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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