Free Republic

“Between 2002 and 2013 statin use in the US nearly doubled, cholesterol levels are falling, yet cardiovascular deaths appear to be on the rise.”

Could a simple drug that has been on the market for decades be used to treat COVID-19? A research team led by Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)'s Professor Yaakov Nahmias says that early research looks promising; their findings appear in this week's Cell Press Sneak Peak. Over the last three months, Nahmias and Dr. Benjamin tenOever at New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have focused on the ways in which the SARS-CoV-2 changes patients' lungs in order to reproduce itself. Their major finding? This virus prevents the routine burning of carbohydrates. As a result, large amounts of...

Statins are not particularly effective at reducing the risk of dying from heart disease, a study claims. Scientists analysed 35 studies into the effects of the drugs which lower 'bad' LDL cholesterol and found the pills have no consistent benefit. The research, published in the British Medical Journal, found three quarters of all trials reported no reduction in mortality among those who took the drugs. And half of all studies suggested that cholesterol-busting pills did not prevent heart attacks or strokes. The research flies in the face of decades of medical advice. Authors claimed doctors have overlooked evidence that suggests...

In the late 70's there was a war waged by US govt. officials(experts) against the traditional American breakfast(bacon & eggs).

“Patient Five” was in his late 50s when a trip to the doctors changed his life. He had diabetes, and he had signed up for a study to see if taking a “statin” – a kind of cholesterol-lowering drug – might help. So far, so normal. But soon after he began the treatment, his wife began to notice a sinister transformation. A previously reasonable man, he became explosively angry and – out of nowhere – developed a tendency for road rage. During one memorable episode, he warned his family to keep away, lest he put them in hospital. -snip- Alarmed,...

I am not asking for professional medical advice, but personal opinions about the benefits or obstacles about statins.

Sorry - Just a personal query. A few weeks back, some FReeper mentioned 'My wife is a pharmacist; she will not let me use statins." I have no idea how to find out who/ when -- but would love to chat briefly with the person who posted. Thanks

Earlier this week, the Chair of the British Parliament Science and Technology Committee, Sir Norman Lamb MP made calls for a full investigation into cholesterol lowering statin drugs. It was instigated after a letter was written to him signed by a number of eminent international doctors including the editor of the BMJ, the Past President of the Royal College of Physicians and the Director of the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine in Brazil wrote a letter calling for a full parliamentary inquiry into the controversial medication[1]. It’s lead author Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra makes the case for why’s there’s an...

Patients with the rare muscle disease, idiopathic inflammatory myositis, are nearly twice as likely to have been on statin therapy than matched population controls, an Australian study shows. Using data from 1990-2014 from the SA myositis database, 221 patients older than 40 and diagnosed with histologically confirmed idiopathic inflammatory myositis were compared with 662 matched controls from a general population state database. Compared with controls, patients with myositis had a 79% increased likelihood of exposure to statins, reported the authors, led by Dr Vidya Limaye, a rheumatology staff specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Should a 76-year-old who doesn’t have heart disease, but does have certain risk factors for developing it, take a statin to ward off heart attacks or strokes? You’d think we’d have a solid answer to this question. These widely prescribed medications lower cholesterol to reduce cardiovascular disease, the nation’s most common killer, and get much of the credit for the nation’s plummeting rates of heart attacks and strokes. When they entered common use in the 1990s, “it was very exciting,” said Dr. Ariela Orkaby, a geriatrician at the Harvard Medical School and lead author of a new study on statins...

Fears are growing over the side effects of cholesterol-lowering pillsScientists have found the heart disease drug badly affects our stem cells, the internal medical system which repairs damage to our bodies and protects us from muscle and joint pain as well as memory loss. Last night experts warned patients to “think very carefully” before taking statins as a preventative medicine. A GP expert in the field said: “They just make many patients feel years older. Side effects mimic the ageing process.” The new research by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans has reignited the debate about statin side effects which many doctors...

In a rather self-serving review article entitled “A historical perspective on the discovery of statins,” Japanese biochemist Akira Endo hits all the conventional and PC notes in his 10-page (including references) trip down memory lane. From the get-go, in the abstract itself he tells us that… “Cholesterol is essential for the functioning of all human organs, but it is nevertheless the cause of coronary heart disease. Building on that knowledge, scientists and the pharmaceutical industry have successfully developed a remarkably effective class of drugs–the statins–that lower cholesterol levels in blood and reduce the frequency of heart attacks.” We would expect...

Part 1: My Spirit is Broken: Will the New Statin Guidelines Do More Harm Than Good? “You use them or you die.” This is what a doctor told Sulette Brown, a psychotherapist from Oklahoma, when she balked at taking statins, after she’d been rushed to the emergency room for a heart attack. Since that night, her life has changed in ways she could not have imagined.

Drinking Earl Grey tea could help guard against heart disease, it has emerged, after a study found that bergamot extract - a key ingredient in the hot drink - is just as effective as statins at controlling cholesterol. Scientists believe bergamot, a fragrant Mediterranean citrus fruit which gives Earl Grey tea its distinctive flavour, can significantly lower cholesterol. They say it contains enzymes known as HMGF (hydroxy methyl glutaryl flavonones) which can attack proteins in the body known to cause heart disease. The study found bergamot could even be as effective as statins, used to control cholesterol but which can...

For decades, if you asked your doctor what your odds were of suffering a heart attack, the answer would turn on a number: your cholesterol level. Now the nation’s first new heart disease prevention guidelines in a decade take a very different approach, focusing more broadly on risk and moving away from specific targets for cholesterol. The guidance offers doctors a new formula for estimating risk that includes age, gender, race and factors such as whether someone smokes.

For years doctors have been focused on specific cholesterol numbers to help patients prevent initial and recurrent heart attack. New guidelines mean only those at high risk will be recommended to take the drugs. So how will doctors decide who is at high risk? More importantly what are physicians already saying about changes? Dr. Neil Stone of Northwestern University chaired the committee that wrote the new guidelines, which was a collaborative effort between the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. No more statins to control cholesterol numbers say expertsInstead of looking at cholesterol numbers Stone said physicians...

Revised guidelines for heart health are set to move away from target-based approach. Soon after Joseph Francis learned that his levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol sat at twice the norm, he discovered the short­comings of cholesterol-lowering drugs — and of the clinical advice guiding their use. Francis, the director of clinical analysis and reporting at the Veterans Health Administration (VA) in Washington DC, started taking Lipitor (atorvastatin), a cholesterol-lowering statin and the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. His LDL plummeted, but still hovered just above a target mandated by clinical guidelines. Adding other medications had no effect, and upping the...

People with diabetes face the possibility of a number of serious complications, including poor wound healing. Now a new study has found that application of a topical statin drug speeds up wound healing in mice with diabetes.Could a statin drug help diabetic wound healing? Diabetes has several characteristics that make recovering from wounds more challenging. For example, people with diabetes have a weakened immune system, which makes healing more problematic. Nerve damage (neuropathy), which is common in diabetes, can make individuals unable to feel the pain associated with a cut or blister until it becomes infected. Diabetes is also...

I can't find the article that Rush was talking about. Does anybody have a link?

We’re overdosing on cholesterol-lowering statins, and the consequence could be a sharp increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes. This past week, the Food and Drug Administration raised questions about the side effects of these drugs and developed new labels for these medications that will now warn of the risk of diabetes and memory loss. The announcement said the risk was “small” and should not materially affect the use of these medications. The data are somewhat ambiguous for memory loss. But the magnitude of the problem for diabetes becomes much more apparent with careful examination of the data from...