Statins and your cholesterol level
This information will give you the power to make an informed decision about maintaining and improving your health. It is the result of decades of medical research that, in 2004, began an era in which we know the causes of chronic degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis, realise they are maladaptions of our paleolithic genome, and know methods to re-adjust our cholesterol transport system. This is for those seeking optimal health (atherosclerosis can develop for decades before symptoms develop), for those starting to have difficulty walking, those developing claudication and peripheral vascular disease as well as for those learning to ward off heart attack, stroke, acute coronary syndromes, and death.
At the beginning of 2004 physicians were aware that patients at risk of stroke and heart attack should be treated with a statin to lower LDL-cholesterol levels below 2.60 mmol/L but many physicians and healthy patients alike were accustomed to regarding a total cholesterol in a blood test within limits of 2.60 - 5.15 mmol/L to be acceptable even when high in that range if the HDL-cholesterol level is high too. That is no longer true. Scientific excitement at new study results began circulating late in 2003 and reached general circulation April 8, 2004 in the New England Journal of Medicine when it was reported that high dose Lipitor unexpectedly showed not only a dramatic lowering of lipid levels but also a decrease in the marker for generalized inflammation, C-reactive protein, another indicator of cardiac risk. We now know all statins have this effect.
The findings indicate that in patients with acute coronary syndrome, drastically lowering LDL cholesterol to levels substantially below current target levels there is benefit, and that below 2.07 mmol/L of LDL cholesterol, achieved with high dose Lipitor, plaque growth stops. This has profound implications for healthy individuals. These startling results indicate that monitoring otherwise healthy individuals and adjusting LDL and HDL and C-reactive protein to healthy levels will effectively prevent or reverse atherosclerosis and the many consequences of poor arterial flow.
These multi-center clinical trials are a remarkable advance for treatment of heart disease. The completed Prove-IT-TIMI 22, REVERSAL, IDEAL, SEARCH and TNT clinical trials are compelling evidence atherosclerosis can be placed into remission and reversed. Ongoing clinical trials are exploring how low to go with LDL-cholesterol while other trials are exploring raising HDL-cholesterol. Therefore a total cholesterol level is not fully informative. You need to know actual LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol levels as well as triglyceride levels. As yet medical scientists do not yet know how low to take LDL and how high to take HDL levels to achieve optimal plaque clearance. Studies are ongoing.
It is a powerful confirmation of many prior studies on the benefits of lowering blood cholesterol with lifestyle changes in nutrition, exercise, and vitamin supplements.
Since less than twenty five per cent of circulating cholesterol comes from the diet with seventy five per cent produced by the spleen, lungs, muscle cells, brain, and other tissues, this is an early alert for all healthy individuals with high cholesterol levels to take advantage of this information to ensure optimal healthy longevity.
For any individual seeking optimal healthy longevity that means taking the steps necessary to lower lipids, decrease C-reactive protein levels, and to develop a statin strategy to add to nutrition, exercise, and vitamins. Many patients experience fatigue and muscle pain, probably because statins also reduce the body's production of co-enzyme Q10. On Fox News September 24, 2006, Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld suggested such patients take supplemental Coenzyme Q10 with a statin.
A medical treatment for reversal of atherosclerosis is also a treatment for the many degenerative diseases associated with early mortality, which have cut short the fullness of life to so many, with almost a million deaths alone in the United States last year.
ErinPharm advises that you consult with your personal physician, get blood drawn for a lipid panel, start a statin regimen if necessary, start to lower your LDL cholesterol to below 1.81 mmol/L, drop triglycerides to below 3.38 mmol/L using omega-3 fish oils, take 100 - 200mg/day CoQ10 to resolve statin side effects, increase HDL to over 1.55 mmol/L or more with frequent exercise; take niacin or Niaspan (but not with a statin), consume anti-oxidant foods, vitamins and juices (pomegranate juice), monitor your homocysteine levels and fibrinogen levels and plan on living a long life.
Updated December 3, 2006.
New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 350: pp.1495-1504, April 8, 2004
C-reactive protein is a marker for generalized bodily inflammation and should be lowered to as near zero as possible since this is also a prime marker for cardiac risk. The American Heart Association has defined C-reactive protein (CRP) levels as low risk, average risk, and high risk with values of less than 1.0 mg/L, 1.0 to 3.0 mg/L, over 3.0 mg/L.
Statins lower C-reactive protein levels and concomitant treatment with omega-3 fish oils will lower the level even further.
Omega-3 fish oils are of prime importance in lowering triglyceride levels as well as reducing inflammation, depression and mortality from numerous causes. Aim at achieving a triglyceride level of 3.38 mmol/L or less. Take care, omega-3 fish oils are also anti-coagulants.
For the bold and adventurous it may be instructive to reflect upon a condition known as hypobetalipoproteinemia
According to the Merck Manual hypolipobetaproteinemia usually has no clinical manifestations, the individual has plasma total cholesterol (TC) levels ranging from 1.81 - 3.10 mmol/L, HDL is normal to high, and LDL is 0.52 - 1.81 mmol/L, usually below 60 mg/dL, normal food intake and fat absorption, are associated with a decreased incidence of coronary artery disease and other atherosclerotic sequelae and have been referred to as the 'longevity syndromes'. No treatment is required.
So with frequent exercise, good nutrition, avoiding smoke, taking alcohol with prudence, following the information given on this web page and using, when necessary, a statin and supplemental vitamins, using exercise and niacin-inositol (but not with a statin), consuming anti-oxidant foods, vitamins, and juices (pomegranate juice) to start raising your HDL level while following the medical literature to see which company is first in the race to raise HDL-cholesterol levels with a safe molecular candidate you can plan your personal healthy longevity.
Elevated homocysteine levels are a marker associated with cardiac risk. Ideally homocysteine should be below 9.0 micromol/L. Although folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12 have been used to lower homocysteine levels recent studies have shown that these supplements are not of benefit for ongoing cardiac problems. Fibrinogen levels should be monitored and maintained between 170 to 460 mg/dL. (4.40 -11.90 mmol/L)
Yet another 'longevity' syndrome, in which HDL is high, has decreased incidence of disease.
Understand how to read your lipid panel. The lipoprotein particle levels measured in a lipid panel all contain cholesterol, protein, and triglycerides. HDL-cholesterol contains the most amount of protein, LDL-cholesterol the most amount of cholesterol, and VLDL-cholesterol the most amount of triglyceride. Total cholesterol levels are calculated according to the following equation:
Total cholesterol = HDL-cholesterol + LDL-cholesterol + (triglycerides divided by 5)
Since VLDL-cholesterol is mainly triglycerides then a VLDL value is recorded as one-fifth that of the triglyceride level measured
I invite you to bec ome a member of the Life Extension Foundation. John Fahey
The National Institutes of Health has already reported and is continuing research in growing new blood vessels in patients by inserting time-release capsules of basic fibroblast growth factor into the heart muscle of patients scheduled for bypass surgery.
For those at more advanced stages of cardiovascular disease surgical intervention is reaching more sophisticated levels to repair damage.
Clinical studies have proved that injecting the patient's own bone marrow cells into the calf muscle results in newly formed blood vessels for a person with peripheral artery disease, resulting in reversal of claudication in even the most severe cases.
The growth of knowledge gained in recent years is a deeper understanding of Angiogenesis.
Angiogenesis growth factor induced generation of new blood vessels for patients with coronary artery disease are showing promising results, News-medical.net is explaining about planned clinical studies, while other researchers are exploring various options for generating new arteries.
To create arteries researchers started with a tube of structural material that would later dissolve, then seeded the inner wall with the patient's vascular cells that had been reversed in ageing with Geron's telomerase technology, while pulsing a vitamin and nutrient solution through the tube as the cells multiplied and filled the dissolving scaffold. Other cells were added to line the interior of the tube to complete the artery.
These proto-arteries are not yet fully functional since collagen and elastin at least will have to be woven into the arterial matrix so there's a lot more research to be done. Encourage the young to migrate to science. See the wonder. EdRef College Search Directory.
Pfizer has run frontier studies that raised HDL-cholesterol by substantial amounts with a formulation called torcetrapib/lipitor. A major world-wide Phase III clinical study with 30,000 patients and 242 sites completed recruitment September 16, 2005. On completion of treatment these patients were placed into a one year mortality and morbidity study called ALLIANCE. Initial reports were that HDL levels rose up to 80% in some patients. This parallels reports with the ETC-216 Phase II clinical trial (torcetrapib is CP-529,414) Devastatingly, these studies foundered, and were terminated December 2, 2006, because of unacceptable cardiovascular events and mortality data. Since the conceptual logic of raising HDL-cholesterol levels remains intact, this means the race among other pharmaceutical companies to develop a safe medication to raise HDL-cholesterol levels will become more vigorous.
Debate arises over continuation of invasive angioplasty/bypass procedures for the most common kind of heart attack. N. Eng. J.Med 353;11, pp 1095-1104
John L. Fahey
The major LIPIDS in the blood are triglycerides, LDL, HDL and VLDL. They transport cholesterol throughout the body.
Learn the facts now...add decades to your life...start while still healthy...statins have many beneficial effects
If you smoke - stop. Smoking reduces HDL-cholesterol levels, oxidises LDL-cholesterol and promotes plaque accretion. Get a prescription for Chantix.
