Best predictor of heart attack/stroke: CRP
How do you measure your chance of heart disease / stroke?
The most accurate indicator of heart disease and stroke is actually C-Reactive Protein –(the higher
the value of CRP, the higher the risk of Chronic Heart Disease and Cardio Vascular Disease). Here at Georgia Holistic Dentist, we can provide you with a finger-stick dual blood test for both CRP and 3 month blood sugar average.
Health Article by Allan Spreen, MD
Women with high cholesterol live longer!
In this study, Norwegian researchers followed more than 50,000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 74 for 10 years. They checked cholesterol levels for the volunteers at the beginning of the study. Then, the researchers checked back up on the volunteers to see who had died from a heart attack or a stroke. They used this data to determine cholesterol’s connection to overall mortality risk.
And here’s what they found…
Women with high cholesterol lived longer! In fact, cholesterol levels had an inverse relationship to mortality. So, the higher the cholesterol levels the lower the mortality risk.
And the opposite was true too…
The lower the cholesterol levels, the higher the overall mortality risk.
Plus…
The data showed that women with high cholesterol had the lowest risk of suffering a fatal heart attack or stroke.
The researchers think there are “possible errors” in the way we calculate risk for cardiovascular disease. In fact, maybe we should cut high cholesterol out of the equation altogether.
According to the researchers’ report, “public health recommendations regarding the ‘dangers’ of cholesterol should be revised. This is especially true for women, for whom moderately elevated cholesterol (by current standards) may prove to be not only harmless but even beneficial.”
Beneficial cholesterol!
This brings me back to the problem of statin drugs. If high cholesterol isn’t the ironclad risk factor we once thought…why they heck are one in two (or one in three) adults of a certain age taking the darned drugs?
I’ll tell you why… No one out there knows the truth about cholesterol. Most of us only know what we get from the news. And the mainstream media doesn’t pick up stories like this that point out problems with the high cholesterol-causes-heart disease model.
In fact, I just ran a quick Google search to see which mainstream media hacks picked up on the Norwegian research. …………..Not one…….. Not one major news outlet ran the story about women with high cholesterol living longer.
So, let’s try another tactic. I ran another Google search. This time I typed “statin drugs” into the search box.
The mainstream press is all over this one. They all ran stories about the new combo cholesterol-diabetes drug by Merck. And you’d better bet all the biggies are here on the list: TIME, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News & World Report.
According to the Chicago-Sun Times, “The first combination pill for the millions of people with the dangerous combination of diabetes and high cholesterol won U.S. approval Friday, offering convenience — and savings — to patients taking multiple pills.”
Well, high cholesterol might not be as dangerous as everyone thinks it is. But let’s not get picky. Just think of the convenience and the savings (of this NEW PILL)!
One in six adults in the U.S. has high cholesterol, according to the CDC. And nearly every doctor in the land will tell you that if you have high cholesterol, you’re at risk for heart disease, the number one killer in the nation.
To deal with this supposed epidemic, doctors prescribe statin drugs. They prescribe lots of statin drugs. In fact, one out of two men (and about one out of every three women) ages 65 to 74 take a statin drug to lower their “bad” cholesterol.
But what if this was all a great big hoax? What if high cholesterol weren’t so bad after all? In fact, what if high cholesterol actually made you live longer?
Missing the mark intentionally
For years, I’ve been telling you that high cholesterol is the wrong target.
In fact, remember the ALLHAT heart study that I always cite? That federally-funded study followed 10,000 men and women with high cholesterol for eight years. Half the patients took a statin during the trial. The other half followed “usual care.” This meant the patients made healthy changes to their diet and lifestyle.
At the end of the trial, the statin group lowered their cholesterol by 17 percent. The “usual care” group only lowered their total cholesterol by eight percent.
But here’s the clincher…
The statin group had no fewer heart attacks or strokes. Plus, both groups had the very same mortality rates.
So let’s recap…
In this major, federally-funded study, men and women who took a statin drug for eight years didn’t improve their heart attack and stroke risk. Plus, they didn’t live any longer than the folks who just tried to take better care of them.
So consider this…
If you take a statin drug, you will lower your cholesterol. But will you live any longer by doing so?
Probably not. And here’s why…
As I’ve always said, blood cholesterol isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, this study out of Norway found that high cholesterol might even be desirable if you ask the women who lived the longest with “high” cholesterol!
by Allan Spreen, MD
Effects of diet on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
Source
Atherosclerosis Research, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, 5700 Martin Luther King Junior Way, Oakland, CA, 94609, USA, [email protected].
Abstract
Multiple dietary factors have been shown to increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations, and HDL-C has been inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Replacement of dietary carbohydrate with polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fat has been associated with progressively greater increases in HDL-C (7-12%) in addition to other lipid changes. Added sugars, but not high glycemic carbohydrates, have been associated with decreased HDL-C. Alcohol consumption has been associated with increased HDL-C (9.2%) independent of changes in other measured lipids. Modest effects on HDL-C (~4-5%) among other lipid and non-lipid CHD risk factors have also been observed with weight loss by dieting, omega-3 fatty acids, and a Mediterranean diet pattern. The CHD benefit of increasing HDL-C is unclear given the inconsistent evidence from HDL-raising pharmacologic trials. Furthermore, pleiotropic effects of diet preclude attribution of CHD benefit specifically to HDL-C. Investigation into functional or other properties of HDL may lend further insight.
PMID:
21901431
Saturated Fat– Good for you????
Research shows there is “NO SIGNIFICANT EVIDENCE for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of Chronic Heart Disease or Cardi-Vascular Disease”!!!! So, heat the BUTTER (which actually helps you absorb other nutrients!!) And, DO NOT heat olive oil!!!
See the research aricle of the meta-analysis!! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
For more info call or email Dr. Lorie at [email protected]
770-983-0123