Debunking cholesterol myth - when will they learn?
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cstehansen
Posts: 1,984 Member
New drug trial:
http://www.thecardiologyadvisor.com/acc-meeting-highlights/evacetrapib-did-not-reduce-cv-events-in-high-risk-patients/article/487228/
The drug lowered LDL by 31% and raised HDL by 3%, but didn't stop any heart attacks or deaths.
I think, based on on my research and the research of others, there are causes of heart disease which MAY also raise cholesterol, but the raised cholesterol does not cause heart disease. I know many have heard the analogy before, but blaming cholesterol is like blaming the fireman for the house fire because almost every house fire has at least some firemen there.
That may not be the best analogy, but it sort of works.
It may be more like saying that my house got wet because my car got wet when in fact they both got wet because it rained. We haven't entirely figured out what the rain is. We just know that when the car gets wet, it is correlated to when the house gets wet. Putting the car under a canopy to keep it from getting wet does not stop the rain and therefore does not stop the house from getting wet.
In the same way, they repeatedly try drugs to lower cholesterol but they have continued to fail in stopping heart disease. The best they have done is when they have only tested those with high inflammation and the reduced cholesterol along with reduced inflammation moderately reduced risk from just over 1.1% down to about 0.8%. In the scientific world, they called this a 30% relative risk reduction. In terms of true risk, it was only a 0.3% reduction.
I am off my soapbox now. You can return to your regularly scheduled program.
http://www.thecardiologyadvisor.com/acc-meeting-highlights/evacetrapib-did-not-reduce-cv-events-in-high-risk-patients/article/487228/
The drug lowered LDL by 31% and raised HDL by 3%, but didn't stop any heart attacks or deaths.
I think, based on on my research and the research of others, there are causes of heart disease which MAY also raise cholesterol, but the raised cholesterol does not cause heart disease. I know many have heard the analogy before, but blaming cholesterol is like blaming the fireman for the house fire because almost every house fire has at least some firemen there.
That may not be the best analogy, but it sort of works.
It may be more like saying that my house got wet because my car got wet when in fact they both got wet because it rained. We haven't entirely figured out what the rain is. We just know that when the car gets wet, it is correlated to when the house gets wet. Putting the car under a canopy to keep it from getting wet does not stop the rain and therefore does not stop the house from getting wet.
In the same way, they repeatedly try drugs to lower cholesterol but they have continued to fail in stopping heart disease. The best they have done is when they have only tested those with high inflammation and the reduced cholesterol along with reduced inflammation moderately reduced risk from just over 1.1% down to about 0.8%. In the scientific world, they called this a 30% relative risk reduction. In terms of true risk, it was only a 0.3% reduction.
I am off my soapbox now. You can return to your regularly scheduled program.
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Great analogy! I'll have to remember that one.0
