Latest in lipidology: is lipoprotein(a) "the most dangerous particle you ’ve never heard of"?
Dr Attia's podcast on Lp(a), the link is here:https://peterattiamd.com/tomdayspring6/Discussed:- ApoB as a preferred metric over LDL-P [16:30]; Atherogenic lipoproteins (apoB/LDL-P) as front and center in pathogenesis of CVD. ApoB and LDL-P are used interchangeably, but this is not quite accurate.- Therapeutic goals for apoB concentration [21:45]-Lipoprotein(a)—the most dangerous particle you’ve never heard of [55:00];preferred lab measurements [1:17:45]; Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), is a distinctive particle with 2 components: - a lipoprotein core that resembles LDL- a shell that contains apolipopro...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 1, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Beyond heart health: Could your statin help prevent liver cancer?
Liver cancer is hard to treat. It’s a top-five cause of cancer-related death worldwide and a growing cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Since liver cancer is often found at a late stage, when treatment has limited benefit, there has been increasing interest in prevention. That’s where statin medications might come in.
Liver cancer is usually caused by chronic liver disease, so an important way to prevent liver cancer is to treat the underlying trigger. For example, curing hepatitis C infection — an important cause of chronic liver disease — reduces the risk of liver cancer. However, if the liver d...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 27, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Irun Bhan, MD Tags: Cancer Drugs and Supplements Health Source Type: blogs
Study supports benefit of statin use for older adults
In this study, the most common reason that patients or their doctors stopped statins was the development of advanced cancer or other major illness.
In my practice, I have also cared for many patients who have stopped taking statins or who express reluctance to take statins due to side effects. The most common side effect is muscle ache (typically tenderness or soreness of the large muscle groups, such as the biceps and thighs), which affects about 20% of statin takers and reverses when the statin is discontinued. There is also a slightly increased risk of diabetes with long-term statin use and, very rarely, liver problems....
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 2, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dara K. Lee Lewis, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Healthy Aging Heart Health Source Type: blogs
Evidence-Based Satire
By SAURABH JHA
Sequels generally disappoint. Jason couldn’t match the fear he generated in the original Friday the 13th. The sequel to the Parachute, a satirical piece canvassing PubMed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing parachutes to placebo, matched its brilliance, and even exceeded it, though the margin can’t be confirmed with statistical significance. The Parachute, published in BMJ’s Christmas edition, will go down in history with Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal and Frederic Bastiat’s Candlemakers’ Petition as timeless satire in which pedagogy punched above, indeed depended on, their absurd...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 22, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: at RogueRad Tags: OP-ED RogueRad Source Type: blogs
Nutritional Lipidology
The statin drug industry and their willing and eager servants, i.e., doctors, have managed to prop up a drug franchise that has reaped hundreds of billion of dollars over the years while providing little benefit but plenty of harm. Although I’ve discussed these issues many times here in the Wheat Belly Blog, the Wheat Belly books, and more recently in the Undoctored book and Blog, it bears exploring further. I keep on hoping that clarity, logic, evidence, truth and repetition overcome our lack of billions of dollars in marketing that Big Pharma controls, a genuine David-vs-Goliath situation.
I call all the varied c...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - December 17, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates cardiovascular cholesterol heart lipoproteins statin undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Live the Wheat Belly lifestyle, get off prescription medications
Take a look at the list of medications people have been able to stop by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle.
These represent medications prescribed by doctors to, in effect, “treat” the consequences of consuming wheat and grains. They prescribe drugs to treat inflammation, swelling, skin rashes, gastrointestinal irritation, high blood sugars, airway allergy, joint pain, high blood pressure, leg edema and other abnormal effects caused by wheat and grains.
The list includes anti-inflammatory and pain medication, acid reflux drugs, injectable and oral drugs for diabetes, numerous anti-hypertensive agents, asthma i...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - October 27, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates autoimmune blood sugar bowel flora cholesterol Gliadin gluten-free grain-free grains Inflammation undoctored Weight Loss wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Track Your Wheat Belly Transformation
Health, weight, and appearance are transformed by living the Wheat Belly lifestyle. You can see it on the face with reduced puffiness and edema and smoother skin. You can see it on the waistline as inflammatory visceral fat recedes. You can perceive it as increased energy, reduced depression and anxiety, reduction or elimination of irritable bowel syndrome and acid reflux symptoms, reduced joint pain, reversal of leg/ankle edema, and in so many other ways.
But how about blood measures of health? You can witness the transformations there, too. And the transformations you see in blood markers of health can be just as dramati...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - September 20, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates cholesterol Inflammation triglycerides Weight Loss wheat belly Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 68-year-old man with heart failure
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 68-year-old man is evaluated at a follow-up appointment. He has a 7-year history of heart failure secondary to ischemic cardiomyopathy. Over the past 6 months, he has had three hospitalizations for exacerbations of his heart failure. He currently has exertional dyspnea while getting dressed, and his maximal activity level is limited to riding to the store with his wife but staying in the car. Medical history is significant for disseminated prostate cancer treated with androgen deprivation therapy. Medications ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 7, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Cardiology Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 62-year-old man is evaluated during a routine visit
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 62-year-old man is evaluated during a routine visit. He is asymptomatic and walks 1 mile most days of the week. Medical history is significant for aortic stenosis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Medications are aspirin, metformin, lisinopril, metoprolol, and rosuvastatin.
On physical examination, the patient is afebrile, blood pressure is 130/66 mm Hg, pulse rate is 68/min, and respiration rate is 14/min. BMI is 29. Cardiac examination reveals a grade 2/6 early-peaking systolic mur...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 21, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Cardiology Diabetes Source Type: blogs
Stroke Risk Nearly Halved by Some Combinations of Medications to Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol
The data here gives a fairly good idea of the bounds of the possible and plausible when lowering blood pressure and blood cholesterol, putting some numbers to the degree to which stroke risk can be reduced. Strokes occur due to breakage or blockage of blood vessels, and the roots of that lie in (a) the stiffening of blood vessels that breaks the feedback mechanisms determining blood pressure, and (b) the processes of atherosclerosis that produce fatty plaques in blood vessel walls, narrowing and weakening them.
Blood pressure medications don't address the roots of the problem, but force a lower blood pressure, which...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 26, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 38-year-old woman with a HbA1c value of 9.1%
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 38-year-old woman is evaluated after laboratory study results show an HbA1c value of 9.1%. Her HbA1c goal is less than 7% because she has high function, long life expectancy, few comorbidities, good support, health literacy, and access to care. Medical history is significant for morbid obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Family history is notable for her mother, sister, and brother with type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Medications are insulin glargine ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 2, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Diabetes Endocrinology Primary Care Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 57-year-old man is seen after results of a carotid ultrasound
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 57-year-old man is seen for follow-up evaluation after results of a carotid ultrasound obtained to investigate a left neck bruit show a mixed density plaque at the origin of the left internal carotid artery. Stenosis is estimated to be 60% to 80%. He has had no focal neurologic symptoms or visual loss. The patient has coronary artery disease (CAD) with stable angina, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and mild kidney failure. He has a 30-pack-year smoking history but stopped smoking 7 years ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 6, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Heart Source Type: blogs
A Health Plan CEO Daydreams
By MICHEL ACCAD, MD
Jim was at his desk, looking weary.
The last few weeks had been brutal. Despite working twelve-hour days, he felt that he had little to show for it. His annual board meeting was to take place the next day, and he expected it to be tense.
With a replacement bill for the ACA about to be voted on, and with Trump in the White House, the situation seemed particularly precarious. The board members had asked him to present a contingency plan, in case things in DC didn’t go well.
As CEO of a major health insurance company, Jim was well aware that business as usual had become unsustainable in his l...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 4, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized AHCA health reform MICHEL ACCAD repeal and replace Source Type: blogs
Coronary artery disease: Primary care and prevention – 5
Previous
Statin for primary prevention
Very high lipid levels of the order of LDL cholesterol above 190 mg/dL calls for usage of statins for primary prevention. High intensity statins can be considered in this scenario as in acute coronary syndrome. When the LDL cholesterol level is between 70-189 mg/dL, primary prevention with moderate intensity statin may be considered if they are diabetic and have significant other risk factors for CAD. It is reasonable to measure SGPT/ALT levels before initiating statins and while on treatment so that values above 3 times the upper limit are not reached. Caution is advised in those abo...
Source: Cardiophile MD - December 21, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Updated Medicare and Medicaid Drug Spending Data Released
On November 15, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released updated Medicare and Medicaid drug spending data, to include information for calendar year (CY) 2015 through its online interactive dashboards for Medicare and Medicaid. The inclusion of the Medicaid drug spending data on the public dashboard is new this year, as is the addition of high-level (aggregated) Medicare drug rebate data.
CMS noted that “there is significant growth in spending on prescription drugs, representing a significant burden.” In CY 2015, total prescription drug costs amounted to roughly $457 billion – an estimated ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 14, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
