{"id":103147,"date":"2009-12-26T09:54:59","date_gmt":"2009-12-26T14:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diabetesforums.com\/forum\/type-2-diabetes\/46990-statins-benefits-versus-risks.html"},"modified":"2009-12-26T09:54:59","modified_gmt":"2009-12-26T14:54:59","slug":"statins-benefits-versus-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/103147","title":{"rendered":"Statins – benefits versus risks"},"content":{"rendered":"
I would like to explore the research available on this topic. Sadly a recent very, very helpful thread on the benefits versus risks of statin got deleted because argumentation ensued over the controversial Dr Bernstein input getting intermixed with the more reliable peer reviewed material.<\/p>\n

I personally believe this topic needs more investigation and we need as T2 diabetics to share our articles, experiences about this important topic of cholesterol management and if statins are the best approach – based on our experiences and the research out there. I will start with the ‘tried and true’ position on the issue — which is that statins, for their use in cholesterol lowering, are an important part of the diabetic’s arsenal against heart disease that can be caused my their condition.<\/p>\n

This study referenced at WebMD, represents new research backing the position. Though funded by AstraZeneca a drug company — it was peer reviewed as well by the research community. <\/p>\n

As the original poster I need to ask that all input from Dr Bernstein’s website and quotations from his book and be disallowed in this thread.<\/b><\/font> It gets too heated because it opens up other diet philosophy controversies. And Bernstein’s input has been represented in MANY, MANY threads to date.<\/p>\n

And I’m interested only in peer reviewed studies as well not Internet opinion pieces. If a study isn’t referenced — then don’t post here, please. In this article<\/a> inflammation seems to be the main key in CVD but its link with high cholesterol is undeniable.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tStatin Benefits Patients With Low Cholesterol
\nCrestor Users Cut Cardiac Deaths in Half
\nBy Salynn Boyles
\nWebMD Health News
\nReviewed by Elizabeth Klodas, MD, FACC<\/p>\n

Nov. 10, 2008 — Millions of Americans take statins to lower their cholesterol, but dramatic findings from a study of the statin drug Crestor suggest that millions more might benefit from treatment.<\/p>\n

The findings may also lead to a more important role for the blood test high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in assessing cardiovascular risk.
\nRelated Medications<\/p>\n

More information on common Cholesterol drugs from RxList:
\n * Vytorin
\n * Lipitor
\n * Zetia
\nThe study included about 18,000 apparently healthy men and women with normal cholesterol but higher than normal levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation that has been linked to heart disease.<\/p>\n

Originally planned as a four-year trial, the study was stopped late in March after most participants had taken the statin for less than two years.<\/p>\n

People who took Crestor had half as many major cardiovascular events as people assigned to the placebo arm of the trial.<\/p>\n

The study was funded by Astra-Zeneca, which makes Crestor. It was presented in New Orleans at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions and it also appears in the Nov. 20 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.<\/p>\n

"Physicians can no longer assume that a patient with low cholesterol has a low risk for a heart attack or stroke,<\/b>" lead researcher Paul M. Ridker, MD, of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, tells WebMD.
\nStatins Benefit "Low-Risk" Patients<\/p>\n

Statins are generally prescribed only for people with high cholesterol or those who have borderline high cholesterol and other risk factors for heart attack and stroke, such as diabetes or established heart disease.<\/p>\n

But as many as half of all heart attacks and strokes occur among people without these risk factors who have LDL cholesterol levels that are below recommended thresholds for statin treatment.<\/p>\n

The newly reported trial was designed to explore whether statins might also benefit these people.<\/p>\n

All of the study participants had LDL cholesterol levels of less than 130 milligrams per deciliter when they entered the trial, and none had known diabetes or heart disease. But they did have high-sensitivity CRP levels of 2.0 milligrams per liter or higher.<\/p>\n

Blood hsCRP levels of less than 1 milligram per liter are indicative of low cardiovascular risk, while 1 to 3 milligrams per liter indicates moderate risk, and greater than 3 indicates high risk, Ridker says.<\/p>\n

About 9,000 study participants were treated with 20 milligrams per day of Crestor and an equal number of participants took a placebo.<\/p>\n

When the trial was stopped after a median follow-up of 1.9 years, statin users had lowered their LDL cholesterol by an average of 50% <\/b>and their hsCRP by 37%.<\/p>\n

There were also half as many heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from cardiovascular causes among the participants taking the statin. <\/b>In all, 0.9% of statin users had one of these events, compared to 1.8% of placebo users.<\/p>\n

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I would like to explore the research available on this topic. Sadly a recent very, very helpful thread on the benefits versus risks of statin got deleted because argumentation ensued over the controversial Dr Bernstein input getting intermixed with the more reliable peer reviewed material. I personally believe this topic needs more investigation and we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}