Summary: Per Blog 15 - Statins increase diabetes risk by 50%. Diabetes causes vessel / heart disease. The heart disease is BLAMED ON DIABETES - NOT the statin drugs.
Conclusion from blog 15
CONCLUSION: STATIN US INCREASES DIABETES RISK BY ABOUT 50%
Statin Merry-go-Round
Being put on a statin is often the beginning of a vicious cycle. It becomes a statin drug merry-go-round. As you will see later in this chapter, Statin drugs increase the risk of type 2 diabetes by at least 50 percent, on average.
Translation: Taking statins can increase your triglycerides, thus your heart disease risk. Now you may realize why patient 3 is most likely on a statin drug. Therefore, one of many statin merry-go-round elements is related to diabetes.
As a person trends toward diabetes, their blood glucose goes up.
As their glucose goes up, so do their triglycerides.
As their triglycerides go up, their total cholesterol number goes up.
A large portion of those on statins is on blood pressure medications.
As the cycle continues, their diabetes status worsens, and they are put on insulin therapy.
Their triglycerides go up further, increasing the total cholesterol number, and they are regularly put on a higher statin dose.
Many people on statins still have an adverse event precipitated by the statin drug contributing to the diabetic condition.
Do you know what your doctor or cardiologist does if you have a heart event of some type in this situation?
They put you on an even higher statin dose - if you can tolerate it, Figure 5.3.
Do you want some interesting proof that statins cause heart disease?
Note the high rate of "cholesterol" drug intake (statins).
and this..
Statins were introduced around 1987 (red vertical bar) and became very popular around 2000. Notice the uptick in cardiovascular mortality as statin use increased.
Blue line: cardiovascular deaths in the population
Dotted line: Projected CVD death rate following the reduction in smoking
Dashed line: Projected CVD death rate if statins provided even a modest benefit.
Conclusion: Statins INCREASE cardiovascular DEATHS
EVIDENCE:
"Most heart attack patients' cholesterol levels did NOT indicate cardiac risk"
Translation: cholesterol level interpretations are DEAD wrong.
"Almost 75 percent of heart attack patients fell within recommended targets for LDL
Translation: cholesterol recommended guidelines are DEAD wrong.
References:
Hmmm. They took this article down! I wonder why?!
Found that article at a different location. I will reproduce it here so it cannot be removed forever.
Note the data speaks for itself, but UCLA tries to rationalize the use of statins anyway.
A new national study has shown that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized for a heart attack had cholesterol levels that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event, based on current national cholesterol guidelines.
Specifically, these patients had low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels that met current guidelines, and close to half had LDL levels classified in guidelines as optimal (less than 100 mg/dL).
"Almost 75 percent of heart attack patients fell within recommended targets for LDL cholesterol, demonstrating that the current guidelines may not be low enough to cut heart attack risk in most who could benefit," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study's principal investigator.
While the risk of cardiovascular events increases substantially with LDL levels above 40-60 mg/dL, (Hmm this is contrary to their own data) current national cholesterol guidelines consider LDL levels less than 100-130 mg/dL acceptable for many individuals. The guidelines are thus not effectively identifying the majority of individuals who will develop fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, according to the study's authors. BOLD STATEMENT!
Researchers also found that more than half of patients hospitalized for a heart attack had high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels characterized as poor by the national guidelines.
NOTE - ACCORDING TO THE TOTAL CHOLESTEROL CALCULATION, YOU ARE PENALIZED (WITH A STATIN) IF YOUR HDL IS HIGH BECAUSE IS RAISES YOUR TC!
Published in the January issue of the American Heart Journal, the study suggests that lowering guideline targets for LDL cholesterol for those at risk for cardiovascular disease, as well as developing better treatments to raise HDL cholesterol, may help reduce the number of patients hospitalized for heart attack in the future.
"The study gives us new insight and intervention ideas to help reduce the number of heart attacks," said Fonarow, who is also director of the AhmansonUCLA Cardiomyopathy Center.
"This is one of the first studies to address lipid levels in patients hospitalized for a heart attack at hospitals across the entire country."
The research team used the national database sponsored by the American Heart Association's Get with the Guidelines program. The database includes information on patients hospitalized for cardiovascular disease at 541 hospitals across the country.
Researchers analyzed data from 136,905 patients hospitalized for a heart attack nationwide between 2000 and 2006 whose lipid levels upon hospital admission were documented. This accounted for 59 percent of total hospital admissions for heart attack at participating hospitals during the study period.
THIS IS A LARGE AND STATISTICALLY VALID STUDY - WAY MORE MEANINGFUL THAN THE DRUG COMPANY'S RCT TRIALS USED TO PUT YOU ON BAD DRUGS.
Among individuals without any prior cardiovascular disease or diabetes, 72.1 percent had admission LDL levels less than 130 mg/dL, which is the current LDL cholesterol target for this population. Thus, the vast majority of individuals having their first heart attack would not have been targeted for effective preventative treatments based on the criteria used in the current guidelines.
The team also found that half of the patients with a history of heart disease had LDL cholesterol levels lower than 100 mg/dL, and 17.6 percent of patients had LDL levels below 70 mg/dL, which are guideline targets for LDL cholesterol in those at fair risk and at high risk for cardiovascular disease, respectively.
The study also showed that HDL cholesterol, or "good cholesterol," levels have dropped in patients hospitalized for heart attack over the past few years, possibly due to increasing rates of obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes.
Researchers found that 54.6 percent of patients had HDL levels below 40 mg/dL. (BUT REALIZE THAT IF HDL IS LOW - TOTAL CHOLESTEROL IS LOW - AND YOUR DOCTOR IS HAPPY (THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE!))
Developing more effective treatments to boost HDL levels may help reduce the number of patients hospitalized for heart attacks, according to the authors.
"We found that less than 2 percent of heart attack patients had both ideal LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, so there is room for improvement," said Fonarow.
Fonarow said that only 59 percent of patients in the database had their lipid levels checked upon admission, which should be increased, since these early measurements can often help guide treatment decisions.
He also noted that only 21 percent of patients in the study were taking lipid-lowering medications before admission, despite almost half having a prior history of cardiovascular events, which would prompt treatment. UGH - HURTING PEOPLE CAN HARDLY BE CALLED A "TREATMENT." UNLESS, OF COURSE YOU ARE FAUCI OF KLAUS SCHWAB - OR GATES.
The national cholesterol guidelines are set by the National Cholesterol Education Program, part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The study was sponsored by the Get with the Guidelines program, which is supported by the American Heart Association in part through an unrestricted education grant from the Merck Schering Plough Partnership.
Fonarow has conducted research for GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer and serves a consultant and has received honorarium from Abbott, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer and Schering Plough companies. He is also chair of the Get with the Guidelines steering committee.
Other authors include: Dr. Amit Sachdeva, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; Dr. Christopher P. Cannon, Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Dr. Prakash C. Deedwania, Department of Cardiology, VA Medical Center/UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA; Dr. Kenneth A. LaBresh, Masspro, Waltham, MA; Dr. Sidney C. Smith, Jr., University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC; David Dai, MS and Dr. Adrian Hernandez, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 323 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
Index & Upcoming (short) blogs on cholesterol and statins
Number 1: Cholesterol fun (true) facts - completed
Number 2: Is the actual cholesterol molecule important? c - completed
Number 3: What is an optimal TC value? Remember, no one knows their actual cholesterol molecule value. - completed
Number 4: Surprising fact about cholesterol as an antibiotic - completed
Number 5: TC simple math - dumb doctors - completed
Number 6: What is LDL really? - completed
Number 7: Statins - do they lower the cholesterol molecule? - completed
Number 8: What did we learn from the new "biologics" to lower "cholesterol" - completed
Number 9: Niacin and other "cholesterol" management treatments - completed
Number 10: What did Natasha Campbell-McBride say about cholesterol/lipids? - completed
Number 11: What is a QALY, and how does it relate to "cholesterol"? - completed
Number 12: Idiot doctor from Johns Hopkins, Roger Blumenthal - completed
Number 13: Statins cause Alzheimer's and ALS - THEHIGHWIRE - completed
Number 14: Statin drugs CAUSE diabetes - completed
Number 15: The statin merry-go-round to poor cardiovascular outcomes
Number 16: Women and statin drugs
Number 17: If not "cholesterol," then what?
Number 18: Who says statins do NOT extend life?
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