Cholesterol and Statins
Once upon a time, the rhetoric around statins was relentlessly positive. More recently, though, I think there’s been increasing numbers of doctors and commentators expressing concern about the limited effectiveness of statins, as well as their known but perhaps under-recognised risks. A few weeks back an Australian documentary aired that featured several quite-conventional doctors and […]
Cholesterol and Statins
One of my blogs last week focused on new cholesterol management guidelines issued jointly by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. These new recommendations essentially lowered the threshold for treatment, and mean that many more individuals are now suddenly eligible for treatment with statins. This move seems out of step with […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Recently, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology issued new guidelines on the management of cholesterol. The idea that individuals should be treated on the basis of their LDL-cholesterol level has been significantly relaxed. What this means, is that some individuals with ‘raised’ cholesterol but who are deemed to be at low […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Traditionally, cholesterol management has been based on the concept that blood cholesterol levels should be below a certain level. Sometimes, taking a statin drug may be adjudged to have not reduced cholesterol sufficiently. Some people do not tolerate statin drugs. In these sorts of circumstances, someone may be offered another drug to reduce their cholesterol […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Last Saturday, The Times newspaper here in the UK carried a piece I wrote about the relative merits of butter, margarine and cholesterol-reducing spreads. I think it’s great we have got to the point where a major, ‘serious’ newspaper is commissioning and publishing pieces that challenge nutritional orthodoxy and do not swallow food industry misinformation […]
Cholesterol and Statins
The ‘Cochrane Collaboration’ is an international collective of researchers whose self-proclaimed role is to provide accurate and robust assessments of health interventions. The group specialises in ‘meta-analyses’: the grouping together of several similar studies on interventions including drug therapies. In 2011, Cochrane researchers assessed the evidence relating to statin use in individuals at low risk […]
Brain and Behaviour
I suspect many individuals dread the idea of losing their mental faculties as they age. I think nutrition probably plays a very important role in how well the brain ages and how well its functioning is preserved. This week saw the on-line publication of a study that suggests that a key factor here may be […]
Cholesterol and Statins
‘Heart disease’ is a term usually used to describe the gradual ‘furring up’ of the arteries around the heart due to a process known as atherosclerosis (or arteriosclerosis). Eventually, one or more artery may become completely blocked, starving some of the heart muscle of blood. If this persists, heart muscle will die, and this is […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Earlier this week, someone sent me a link this article that reports on a recent decision made by the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK regarding two television adverts for the cholesterol-reducing margarine Flora pr.activ. The television adverts included text and a voiceover informing us that: “No other food lowers cholesterol more”. Two people complained […]
Cholesterol and Statins
What do you think when you hear the words ‘raised cholesterol’? For many people, these words are synonymous with ‘heart disease’ and an early demise. It is this reaction that underpins the idea that putting downward pressure on blood cholesterol levels is inherently good for us. There are many potential flaws in this thinking, though. […]