Do statins reduce heart scan scores?
If you have a CT heart scan score (also called coronary calcium score), what effect do statin cholesterol drugs have on stopping or slowing the increase in score? (Increasing scores pose increasing risk for heart attack and other cardiac events.)
NONE. If you do nothing at all, the score increases by 25% per year, on average. If you take a statin drug, aspirin, and follow a low-fat diet, what my colleagues call “optimal medical therapy,” the score increases . . . 25% per year—no difference. Yet this is the “solution” that conventional doctors push on their patients, a “treatment” t...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - February 7, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Open cholesterol coronary calcium ct scan do statin drugs reduce heart scan scores reduce coronary calcium reverse coronary calcium reverse heart disease undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Take your statin drug . . . or else
The post Take your statin drug . . . or else appeared first on Dr. William Davis. (Source: Wheat Belly Blog)
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - February 1, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle cardiovascular coronary grain-free heart disease Source Type: blogs
When sponsored CDS is a crime …
Today, The Department of Justice issued an announcement that was “the first ever criminal action against an EHR vendor.”
Criminal action
The core of the criminal action was something inevitable: the tension between better health and better profit. Here’s what I saw … all of which caused me to be not-so-surprised today when the news broke.
In 2008 I was the CMIO at Allscripts. Much of my work was focused on how our customers could use our products to improve the health of our patients. We implemented clinical practice guidelines in the software as a way to help clinical teams and patients mak...
Source: Docnotes - January 28, 2020 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jacob Tags: Uncategorized 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
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 27th 2020
Fight Aging! publishes news and commentary relevant to the goal of ending all age-related disease, to be achieved by bringing the mechanisms of aging under the control of modern medicine. This weekly newsletter is sent to thousands of interested subscribers. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the newsletter,
please visit:
https://www.fightaging.org/newsletter/
Longevity Industry Consulting Services
Reason, the founder of Fight Aging! and Repair Biotechnologies, offers strategic consulting services to investors, entrepreneurs, and others interested in the longevity industry and its complexities. To find out m...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 26, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
When should you prescribe statins for older adults?
Although I have never been a big fan of modeling studies, viewing their appropriate role as hypothesis-generating rather than clinical decision-supporting, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine deserves kudos for trying to do what neither the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association nor the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force did in their respective guidelines on primary prevention of cardiovascular […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 25, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/kenneth-lin" rel="tag" > Kenneth Lin, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Meds Cardiology Source Type: blogs
We All Age in the Same Way, but with a Distribution of Outcomes
Today's research materials are representative of numerous initiatives aiming to produce taxonomies of the biochemistry of aging, to catalog the observed variations. Yet, with the exception of a very small number of unlucky souls bearing rare harmful mutations, we all age for the same underlying reasons. The same processes of metabolism produce the same forms of cell and tissue damage, leading to the same downstream dysfunctions and the same ultimately fatal age-related conditions. Yes, there is some variation in outcome. For all that aging is a universally similar process of multiple interacting forms of damage, some porti...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 22, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
LDL cholesterol: How low can you (safely) go?
In this study, there was no increased risk of adverse outcomes (including muscle aches, liver dysfunction, new onset of diabetes, cancer, and bleeding strokes), even when LDL was lowered to as low as 20 mg/dL. Although statin medications themselves have been linked to side effects, especially at high doses, it appears that extremely low LDL concentrations are not responsible for side effects.
In other words, lowering LDL beyond our previous target of 70 mg/dL appears to be not only safe but beneficial, in patients with CVD.
The post LDL cholesterol: How low can you (safely) go? appeared first on Harvard Health Blog. (Sourc...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dara K. Lee Lewis, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Source Type: blogs
Injection to replace statins for cholesterol
A new drug used as a twice a year injection is being tried out in UK by the NHS as an alternative to statins. Initial reports suggest reduction of bad cholesterol by more than 50 % within weeks of the injection. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-51091083 (Source: cochinblogs)
Source: cochinblogs - January 14, 2020 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Are polypills and population-based treatment the next big things?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart attack and stroke, is a leading cause of death and disability in the US. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are major risk factors for CVD, and even though they are quite common and highly treatable, they tend to be undertreated. This is especially true among those who are poor or members of a minority. It’s estimated that thousands of lives could be saved each year if more people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol received treatment for these conditions.
The appeal of the polypill
One reason that high blood pressure and high cholesterol are poorly treated is t...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 13, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs
Psychology Around the Net: January 11, 2020
This article examines the evidence of when exercise seems to help depression and when it doesn’t.
Comic Gary Gulman Fights Depression With Laughter in His HBO Special and Live Shows: It took comic Gary Gulman decades to stand up to his depression. So he considers it both a public service and a form of therapy that he made his mental illness the focus of his new HBO special “Gary Gulman: The Great Depresh.” By talking about his battle with depression in his comedy shows, Gulman believes he has given others the courage to step up and confront their demons as well.
Wary of War, Iranian Americans Sink Into a Familiar ...
Source: World of Psychology - January 11, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Traci Pedersen Tags: Brain and Behavior Celebrities Depression Disorders Exercise & Fitness General Medications Psychology Around the Net Extroverts Iran Stand Up Comedy statins war Source Type: blogs
Join Dr. William Davis for the 2020 Wheat Belly Alaskan Cruise!
Adventure, the natural beauty of Alaska in the spring, spectacular food, educational and inspirational content, great company—and magnificent health, all rolled into one? Join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience as we sail from Vancouver to Alaska – May 24th-31st, 2020.
Yes! The 2020 Wheat Belly/Undoctored Alaskan Cruise is all about empowering you to achieve health, weight loss, and youthfulness to a degree you may not have thought possible. Regain magnificent health, turn the clock back 10 or 20 years, free yourself from prescription drugs. It’s a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a supportive env...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - January 7, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Open Alaska cruise undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 23rd 2019
In this study, by adenovirus-mediated delivery and inducible transgenic mouse models, we demonstrate the proliferation of both HCs and SCs by combined Notch1 and Myc activation in in vitro and in vivo inner ear adult mouse models. These proliferating mature SCs and HCs maintain their respective identities. Moreover, when presented with HC induction signals, reprogrammed adult SCs transdifferentiate into HC-like cells both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, our data suggest that regenerated HC-like cells likely possess functional transduction channels and are able to form connections with adult auditory neurons.
Epige...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 22, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
High Levels of Blood Triglycerides Trigger Chronic Inflammation
Much of the focus on blood lipid levels is on cholesterol, as higher levels of cholesterol mean higher levels of the oxidized cholesterol that causes atherosclerosis, the formation of fatty lesions that narrow and weaken blood vessels. Methods of lowering cholesterol, such as statins, can slow the progression of atherosclerosis to some degree and reduce risk of a consequent stroke or heart attack occurring when an atherosclerotic lesion ruptures. Researchers here look instead at consequences of high triglyceride levels in the blood, uncovering a mechanism by which this provokes chronic inflammation. Since inflammation driv...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 17, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Declan Doogan of Juvenescence Presenting at Investing in the Age of Longevity
Investing in the Age of Longevity was an event held in London earlier this year as a part of the Longevity Week, a chance for Jim Mellon and the rest of the Juvenescence team to present their thesis on the longevity industry to the investor community - that this is an enormous opportunity to both greatly improve the human condition and generate returns on investment. A number of companies were there to present, as examples of the work on slowing and reversing aging presently taking place, and I was graciously invited to discuss the latest developments at Repair Biotechnologies. The presentations from the event have been po...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 16, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
