Evolving evidence. In a massive study, C-reactive protein didn’t boost the risk of heart attacks.
Credit: Wikipedia
Posted on 07/04/2009 10:05:03 PM PDT by neverdem
Evolving evidence. In a massive study, C-reactive protein didn’t boost the risk of heart attacks.
Credit: Wikipedia
A new study may be the last word in a controversy that's plagued cardiovascular disease research for years: whether a marker of inflammation known as C-reactive protein (CRP) drives heart attacks and strokes. In a survey of more than 128,000 people, researchers have found that genes that raise CRP levels don't make cardiovascular disease more likely. Although the study arrives at the same conclusion as earlier work, its massive size makes it statistically the most powerful test yet of this question and tough to refute, say experts.
Produced by the liver, CRP has long been eyed as a suspect in heart disease. In part, that's because of observational studies, which regularly find that higher CRP levels are associated with later heart trouble. CRP is also a vague indicator of many health problems that hike the risk of heart attacks and strokes, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. But these kinds of associations don't mean that CRP is actually causing heart attacks. Indeed, last fall, Danish researchers reported that genes that raise CRP don't appear to cause cardiovascular disease (ScienceNOW, 29 October 2008).
Now, a team of three dozen researchers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and elsewhere have teamed up to examine the question again. They drew on numerous health studies, which have banked DNA from tens of thousands of participants. Like the earlier Danish group, this one, led by epidemiologist Paul Elliott of Imperial College London, began with a simple premise: If high CRP levels cause heart attacks, then genes that raise CRP levels should also raise the risk of heart attacks. The researchers studied three variants that each raised CRP by about 20%. Then they tested whether having at least one of these variants made cardiovascular disease more likely in more than 28,000 people with disease and in 100,000 people without. The result: The genes had no effect on heart disease, the group reports tomorrow in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
"It's fairly well nailed shut" now, says James de Lemos, a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "It's hard for me to imagine CRP is causal." Instead, he and others believe, the protein may be linked to other molecules that are driving disease--or it may simply indicate inflammation of the arteries that's already present, not disease that's yet to come.
Given the new data, Mark Pepys, a CRP expert at University College London, says it doesn't make sense to look for a drug that targets CRP to prevent heart attacks. Whether CRP is a useful way to gauge the risk of later disease is up in the air, he says, because it's unclear whether CRP levels add helpful information beyond the usual measures, such as family history and obesity.
This latest CRP study also raises questions about a clinical trial published last year called JUPITER. In that study, people with normal cholesterol levels received medication that lowered cholesterol levels as well as CRP, and their hearts benefited (ScienceNOW, 10 November 2008). Some argued that the trial prevented disease because CRP levels dropped, but others said that the real benefit was due to lowering cholesterol in those whose levels are normal to begin with. Increasingly, the latter point appears to be the case, says Elliott.
Cholestral is a general indication that your collagen is being decimated.
The liver detects the collagen breakdown products, and increases cholestral output to plug the holes (kind of like putting “Slime” in your bicycle tires).
The blood vessel growth that leads to blindness is not related to the “swings” ~ just to allowing yourself to run along at 284 ml/dl for years and years.
i use olive oil a lot, but i do not usually cook with it... it reaches its burning point too quickly, and this changes it's chemical make up... other good oils are avocado seed oil--healthier than olive oil in some ways... flaxseed/linseed oil... i also like to cook with real butter from time to time--in small amounts... no margarine! i do like olive oil for sautees and other low-heat uses... and for dressing up our vegetables... we try to follow a "mediterranean diet" for the most part... my husband lost 17 pounds in 8-10 weeks eating this way...
Just like with environmental science, there is a group of scientists/physicians that have been pushed somewhat underground by the establishment over cholesterol.
check out http://www.thincs.org/ for an interesting alternative take on cholesterol.
Benfotiamine, a form of B1 works well for neuropathy, and is quite safe.
Any good references would be appreciated. Glucose excursions appear to be also dependent on various amylase enzymes.
(Pssst, I hope you read your article.)
What kind of knucklehead do you think I am?
It has a something that's a chronic error ~ the difficulty with fructose ~ or fruit sugar. Ordinarily these sugars are so wrapped up in fibers they aren't a real problem. When fruits and vegetables are turned into juice, the sugar is no longer well wrapped and you might as well be eating sugar by the spoonful.
Any good references would be appreciated.
Try almost anything you can find when you search simultaneously for “diabetes” “australia” “glycemic”.
I have been using benfotiamine for nearly a year, and my neurologist has checked my thiamine blood level three times.
Before I started BF, it was barely within low normal level. I started taking 3x 150mg capsules a day, and the next measurement was twice normal. Then I cut back to one per day, and it returned to the top end of normal. And all that time I had been taking a daily multivitanin that included 100% of the thiamine MDR.
If you’re serious about fixing it, I have more suggestions.
I wonder if Allithiamine might help you. It is a true lipid soluble form of B1. Sometimes, it can help where Thiamine/Benfotiamine doesn’t.
Do you take B12 at all ?
If you want more suggestions perhaps you should post on ImmInst.org. Generally very helpful.
Thiamine, b6, and b12 are all at good levels now - the daily BF and multivitamin contribute to that. My neuropathy seems to be static at this point, and might even have regressed a little - hard to tell, because I have lost 60 pounds over the past 10 months, and am exercising strenuously - 1000+ calories on treadmill and arc trainer - for over an hour a day. I will see my neurologist in another month or so, and expect him to do another nerve conduction test that will let me know if I am making any progress.
By the way, my glucose thia morning was 85.
Congratulations on the fasting glucose.
Looks like you have things well under control.
Just pointing out that there are lots of (safe) things to try if your neuropathy doesn’t go away.
Good Luck!
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