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Diets are the cornerstone of most cholesterol lowering medical regimens. But for many it does not suffice. Either due to not adhering to the dietary recommendations, or at times due to genetics. The statins work on improving both. And when your high risk patients stop having so many heart attacks, strokes and deaths, you become a believer.
It maybe that eating one large meal every 36 hours promotes the best of health. But I, as most, cannot live that way.
The diets most MDs recommend are not useful. Restricting calories shows the metabolism and increases obesity in the long run. Low cholesterol or low fat diets do not help.
And exercise is at least as important as nutrition, if not more. But medical science has decided exercise does not cure obesity. It does, but it takes time, and it prevents it in the first place.
As smoking declined, so did mortality from CVD. Interestingly, while this was a decades long trend beginning in the 60s, the last decade has seen mortality from CVD stabilize and even increase (https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/...nt/43cbb65e-en) matching rates of smoking leveling off.
Statins became commercially available in the late 80s, and have exploded in the 90s. However, their explosion has not made a dent in mortality curves for CVD.
I'm not a big believe in inhibiting any necessary enzyme to treat one aspect of a disease.
CVD is virtually unheard among the Masai people. While this could be genetic, it's probably more tied to diet. It seems people with even a genetic predisposition won't develop CVD with proper diet and exercise.
Yes, smoking declined and CVD decreased, and statins got the credit. Meanwhile, obesity increased.
It is genetic, diet and cultural. Same as anywhere. Africa also has little gallbladder and appendix disease. But for some reason they still don't live nearly as long as here.
As one with long term experience caring for high risk patients, I can tell you without hesitation that my patients have benefited. No doubt you can find some data refuting that generalization.
The medical industry loves to blame genetics, because that means lifestyle won't help and drugs are needed.
"For some reason" Africans don't live as long? You don't understand that Africa has very high rates of poverty? You don't understand that poverty means malnutrition, which means more disease? In addition to poor sanitation, and basically poor everything.
Fyi, this is why type 2 diabetics had such poor outcomes with COVID.
Type 2 diabetes results from metabolic syndrome (metsyn). Metsyn results from too much blood glucose trying to enter cells, and overwhelming the mitochondria. This leads to insulin resistance, high blood insulin, obesity, and autoimmune artery disease.
Cutting back on refined carbohydrates AND increasing exercise can eliminate this problem.
Only in the more acute or serious medical cases and conditions do we push treatments that leave you feeling lousy. Many patients do not take their meds if or because they make them feel bad. This is why we do follow ups and make medication adjustments.
We have many years of experience with statins. How many years past 35 does one need to know all the side effects?
We know they have no benefit for most of the people who take them. And the damage they cause, when taken for many years, can be blamed on age. If the damage is noticed, that is. The muscle problems caused by statins mostly occur in people who exercise, and most people do not exercise.
Yeah, to be specific they block HMG-CoA. In the liver this is needed for the biosynthesis of cholesterol. But, HMG-CoA is found throughout your body, in just about every cell, as it regulates isoprenoids.
Taking statins is like going deer hunting with a nuclear warhead.
Exactly. Mess up the whole system just to change one thing. And changing that one thing has no benefit, in most cases.
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