Researchers use good science to make a bad recommendation
The results of a new study have me all tied in knots. On the one hand, it vindicates one of my long-held views. But on the other hand, it also glorifies one of the Big Pharma products that I’ve warned you about repeatedly.
The study, which was announced with great fanfare at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting, finally proves that inflammation is a predictor of heart disease. But it also finds that using statin-based drugs to treat inflammation could cut the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart disease in half.
It’s the old Big Pharma trick. Use a spoonful of sugar (as in good science) to make the medicine go down – literally.
It’s about time the medical community warmed up to the fact that inflammation is often- overlooked sign of heart disease. Inflammation is revealed by the presence of high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood.
The new study, led by Dr. Paul Ridker at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, examined more than 17,000 patients worldwide who had elevated CRP levels, normal cholesterol levels, and no history of heart disease. Half of those patients were put on a regimen of the statin-based drug Crestor. The other half was given placebos.
The results? The statin group had their CRP levels lowered by 37 percent and their “bad cholesterol” level cut in half. Over the nearly two years of the study, 31 patients in the statin group suffered a heart attack while 33 had strokes. The researchers giddily translated this to mean that the inflammation patients who were treated with statins sliced their heart attack risk by 54 percent, and their stroke risk by 48 percent.
I translate it to mean this: an increase in the already insane number of statin prescriptions, further lining the pockets of Big Pharma, and furthering what I see as the misguided war against cholesterol in all its forms.
It’s good that there’s yet another indicator for heart disease which will lead to early treatment. Doctors screening for CRP as well as cholesterol will surely help in the battle against the scourge of heart disease. There will need to be more clinical trials that bear out the results of this study before CRP screening becomes as widespread as cholesterol screening, but it seems that doctors will soon have another weapon in the anti-heart disease arsenal.
But my problem is that now doctors will see that both high cholesterol and high levels of CRP have the same answer: statins. I’m sorry, but there are way too many downsides to statins to be handing them out like candy. But since they’re such big money makers for Big Pharma, there’ll be endless amounts of money to fuel the idea that the substance is the biggest medical miracle since aspirin or penicillin. And this new study only aids that cause.
Since everyone in the world seems destined to be prescribed a statin-based drug at some point in their lives, I urge you to keep this in mind: always supplement you statin with a daily dose of omega-3 fatty acids. Studies have found that those who took daily doses of the same omega-3 fatty acid found in most fish oils along with their prescribed statin drugs enjoyed a 19% reduction in the risk of adverse coronary events than those taking statins alone.
Man-made immune cells hunt down HIV
I know that the idea of genetic engineering gives many of you the heebie jeebies. But eventually more and more people will warm up to the idea when they start to see some of its incredible benefits. Case in point: the new genetically engineered “assassin” cells that seem to have the power to hunt down and kill HIV cells in a lab setting.
While this research is still in its budding stages, the fact that a man-made cell is able to attack and slow the spread of an insidious infection like HIV is pretty exciting stuff. Imagine a future where genetically engineered cells can be created to battle all manner of cancer cells.
HIV is notoriously difficult to kill because it attacks the immune system cells that are designed to fight it. HIV cells are able mutate themselves into disguises that trick the body’s defensive CD8 cells.
According to researcher Andy Sewell of Cardiff University in Wales, “In the face of our engineered assassin cells, the [HIV] virus will either die or be forced to change its disguises again, weakening itself along the way.”
The day is approaching when genetically engineered disease fighters will save millions of lives – and that will make a much stronger case for genetic engineering than genetically engineered tomatoes ever has.
