I Hate to Beat A Dead Horse, But....

Good Evening Everyone!

      I've touched on this week's topic before, but there's information from recent studies that I thought you should know about.  The topic is cholesterol, statin drugs and heart disease.  The first study is one that proves a very scary link between statin use and the development of diabetes in post-menopausal women.  The report was that the risk of diabetes was increased by 71% for all post-menopausal women taking statin drugs!!!  Also noted, was that for women with prior heart attacks/conditions; statin drugs do not help prevent future heart attacks according to meta-analysis on mortality.
      The next study tested the overall validity in the use of cholesterol in heart disease mortality.  Translation:  Is cholesterol as we see it now an accurate measure/predictor of death from heart disease?  The short answer.... NO!  In fact, a level of total cholesterol up to 271 proved to be beneficial for women in preventing death from heart disease.  In general for both sexes, a total cholesterol above 213 was not associated with increased death from heart disease.

*So if you or family members are on statin drugs for cholesterol, please make sure to ask your medical doctor about the safety of them and other options to prevent heart disease.

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff

References:
1)  Is the use of cholesterol in mortality risk algorithms in clinical guidelines valid?  Ten years prospective data from the Norwegian HUNT 2 Study.  Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, February 2011; vol. 18; No. 1; pp. 159-168.
2)  Statin Use and Risk of Diabetes Mellitus in Postmenopausal Women  Archives of Internal Medicine, January 23, 2012; Vol. 172; No. 2; pp. 144-152.



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