Protect your heart better without drugs...

Today's post: Monday, 12-8-2008

One statin drug was in the news recently because when it was give to people with cholesterol levels too low to justify having them take it for that reason -- but who tested high in the HS CRP, high sensitivity C Reactive Protein, test of inflammation which also tends to predict heart problems, those people got somewhat fewer heart attacks.

We did a post on it at that time pointing out that there are many other nondrug methods to protect your heart; and many of those things also reduce CRP when it’s high AND protect your heart in several other ways as well. So they are actually more effective than just lowering the CRP with statins.

See: “Yes; lower high CRP readings. NO to taking statins....Tuesday, 11-11-2008
C Reactive Protein or CRP tests reveal your level of inflammation. High levels on CRP tests have been shown to predict heart disease and heart attacks. So do get yours measured and if it’s high, take action to lower it. A recent study found this prevented heart attacks. BUT, use the nondrug methods in this post.”

Also see, this one for even more on effective nondrug methods to protect your heart:
“Triglycerides reveal heart and stroke risk....Friday, 11-14-2008
Measuring your triglycerides and HDL reveals your level of risk and your level of the dangerous small particle HDL. And, since we know things you can do that we list in this post that increase HDL and other things that lower triglycerides, you can dramatically improve your readings and lower your heart attack and stroke risk by doing these things”

Today, we feature the Early to Rise article pointing out that the effect from using the statin drug was very small. In that author’s opinion the effect found was far too small to be worth the money, let alone the risks of side serious effects.

After that, we include the other new info I just read on how to reduce inflammation without drugs.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.


“3 Reasons to Say No to Crestor

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison, MS

A new study on heart health is touting statin drugs as the best thing since the iPod. But before you head off to your doctor asking for a prescription, let's take a closer look at the facts.

The JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) study is not a clinical trial. It's a ruse to promote drugs as vitamins. Dr. Timothy J. Gardner, president of the American Heart Association, was so excited by the study that he insisted, "this one is pretty clearly a winner for statin therapy."

The New York Times gave us the infomercial, scripted response of, "Taking the statin Crestor, also known as rosuvastatin, slashed the risk of heart attack by more than half according to the JUPITER results."

But most popular media missed the truth. Here are three important points that you need to know:

Crestor's maker - AstraZeneca - funded the study. When a company pays for a study, they pay for the interpretation of results, which always involves statistical trickery. Cardiovascular events were reduced by a paltry but absolute 0.9 percent with Crestor use. Using a few tricks of the statistics trade, this bland number was converted into the more lucrative "relative risk reduction" of 53 percent.
Dr. Mark Hlatky of Stanford told the New England Journal of Medicine that "absolute differences in risk are more clinically important than relative reductions in risk in deciding whether to recommend drug therapy, since the absolute benefits of treatment must be large enough to justify the associated risks and costs."

It would cost beaucoup bucks to follow JUPITER's recommended Crestor protocol. The drug giant stands to pocket an estimated $500,000 per patient (over a patient's lifetime), courtesy of insurance companies, if the drug is used as recommended by the study.
Crestor users risk the particularly nasty side effects of liver failure, rhabdomyolysis, diabetes, and more. This, in itself, is a great reason to say no to Crestor: It's a seriously expensive way to get sick.
I've said it before - you don't need drugs to be healthy. For a healthy cardiovascular system, take hawthorn and folic acid, both available at Walmart.


[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology and is a best-selling author. He holds a master's degree in organic chemistry and has firsthand experience in drug design…..]”

X* X* X* X* X* X*

1. Both the supplements he recommends can be beneficial for your heart. In some people hawthorn lowers blood pressure a bit if it’s too high and directly strengthens your heart. And, taking extra folic acid is one of the most effective ways to lower homocysteine. Since lowering levels of homocysteine that are 9.0 and above BEFORE they damage your blood vessels, protects your heart, that’s also wise.

However, you can get a LOT more protection for your heart and lower your CRP levels, if they are high, better with the other methods in the two posts we did earlier that are listed above.

2. In those two posts, I did not include taking 200 iu a day of natural vitamin E plus other tocopherols such as beta, delta, & gamma tocopherols. (The supplement of this kind I take is the one sold by Solgar that is available in most health food stores.)

I already knew that taking antioxidants such as this kind of vitamin E was somewhat protective for your heart because oxidized LDL is one of the two kinds of LDL that causes cardiovascular disease. And taking this kind of vitamin E is particularly likely to help do this as it is also oil soluble, just like the fatty LDL you’d like it to target.

The new information is that taking this kind of vitamin E also has been shown to decrease inflammation too. That means that taking vitamin E very likely can help you lower your CRP if it’s high &/or prevent it from getting high.

To be accurate, the study that was reported recently was done on mice, not people. But, since there have been reports that taking vitamin E in people has been heart protective, my very strong belief is that it very likely works on people too.

(Some health writers and professionals advocate 400 or 600 iu of vitamin E. But these amounts have sometimes been found to cause problems.

And, if you use the natural vitamin E instead of taking the synthetic vitamin E that may well not work as effectively, I think 200 iu a day is enough to be protective.

Even though the studies that reported problems with more than 200 may have tested the synthetic kind of vitamin E, if 200 iu is effective, why risk taking 400 a day which costs twice as much?)

The important thing is that in addition to the methods in the two posts above, taking 200 iu a day of natural vitamin E may, by itself, give you as much heart protection as taking the statins if you have high CRP. And, you can certainly do the other things we list in our two posts.

All of them together will cost you far less over your lifetime than $500,000. And they will also give you better heart protection without the risk of drug side effects.

Things such as permanent muscle and tendon damage and muscle aches bad enough to prevent you from sleeping well and Alzheimer’s-like symptoms may seem a small price to pay to protect your heart. But if you can save money and avoid the risk of getting these known statin side-effects AND get BETTER protection for your heart, why not do that instead?