The mainstream has been trying to sell cholesterol as one of the biggest threats to our health.
For the past 30 years, the medical mainstream and Big Pharma focused on lowering cholesterol to ridiculously low levels with side effect ridden blockbuster statin drugs like Lipitor. All in an effort to save the world from heart disease.
Now it looks like things might change... But don't expect jubilation. The mainstream might have a solution to preventing heart disease, but they don't know how to turn it into a drug yet.
Right under their noses
In their latest quest to replace Lipitor with another stupendous blockbuster drug, Big Pharma scientists have focused on HDL "good" cholesterol because supposedly it undoes the work of LDL "bad" cholesterol.
I say 'supposedly' because while Big Pharma has been working day and night to develop HDL-boosting drugs, they did find that these drugs work in as much as driving up HDL levels. BUT clinical trials show that higher HDL levels have no effect in preventing heart attacks or heart disease... So really, there would be no point in developing these new drugs.
This conundrum has drug makers pulling at their hair. Research clearly links high HDL levels to healthy hearts, but when drugs are used successfully to raise HDL… there's no effect. It's like they have been duped by the human body.
However, one clever Mayo Clinic cardiologist figured it out. In a recent Wall St. Journal article he revealed the answer, which has been in plain sight for decades, when he said "But maybe it was the exercise that did it, or the not smoking that did it."
Right on the money! It's not the high HDL itself that's good for your heart. It's the heart-healthy things YOU DO that just happen to also push up the HDL.
Imagine that!
Another cardiologist told WSJ that we should "Pay at least as much attention to nutrition as we do to drugs."
Wow. Now there's an archaic concept! Nutrition might play a role in heart health? Who knew!?
But look what these two guys stumbled upon. It's the golden door to heart health.
* Don't smoke
* Exercise
* Eat a proper diet
Sadly, for Big Pharma, you cannot turn this into a pill. Of course, that won't keep Big Pharma from business as usual.
Dr. Roger Newton is the chief science officer of Esperion, a drug development company. Their claim to fame is that they first synthesized the active ingredient in Lipitor.
These days, Esperion is working on an HDL-boosting drug. But Dr. Newton told WSJ something startling. At first, I could hardly believe what I was reading. He said that his company is now focusing "most of our energies and finances" on a new LDL-lowering medicine.
Amazing. Big Pharma is still in complete denial.___________________________________
Daily Health eAlert
For the past 30 years, the medical mainstream and Big Pharma focused on lowering cholesterol to ridiculously low levels with side effect ridden blockbuster statin drugs like Lipitor. All in an effort to save the world from heart disease.
Now it looks like things might change... But don't expect jubilation. The mainstream might have a solution to preventing heart disease, but they don't know how to turn it into a drug yet.
Right under their noses
In their latest quest to replace Lipitor with another stupendous blockbuster drug, Big Pharma scientists have focused on HDL "good" cholesterol because supposedly it undoes the work of LDL "bad" cholesterol.
I say 'supposedly' because while Big Pharma has been working day and night to develop HDL-boosting drugs, they did find that these drugs work in as much as driving up HDL levels. BUT clinical trials show that higher HDL levels have no effect in preventing heart attacks or heart disease... So really, there would be no point in developing these new drugs.
This conundrum has drug makers pulling at their hair. Research clearly links high HDL levels to healthy hearts, but when drugs are used successfully to raise HDL… there's no effect. It's like they have been duped by the human body.
However, one clever Mayo Clinic cardiologist figured it out. In a recent Wall St. Journal article he revealed the answer, which has been in plain sight for decades, when he said "But maybe it was the exercise that did it, or the not smoking that did it."
Right on the money! It's not the high HDL itself that's good for your heart. It's the heart-healthy things YOU DO that just happen to also push up the HDL.
Imagine that!
Another cardiologist told WSJ that we should "Pay at least as much attention to nutrition as we do to drugs."
Wow. Now there's an archaic concept! Nutrition might play a role in heart health? Who knew!?
But look what these two guys stumbled upon. It's the golden door to heart health.
* Don't smoke
* Exercise
* Eat a proper diet
Sadly, for Big Pharma, you cannot turn this into a pill. Of course, that won't keep Big Pharma from business as usual.
Dr. Roger Newton is the chief science officer of Esperion, a drug development company. Their claim to fame is that they first synthesized the active ingredient in Lipitor.
These days, Esperion is working on an HDL-boosting drug. But Dr. Newton told WSJ something startling. At first, I could hardly believe what I was reading. He said that his company is now focusing "most of our energies and finances" on a new LDL-lowering medicine.
Amazing. Big Pharma is still in complete denial.___________________________________
Daily Health eAlert
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Science is a tool; it isn't people.