Diabetes puts you at risk for chronic pain and disability. You can reverse diabetes, no matter your age.
One of the most distressing things about practicing medicine these days is the blind faith that most people, doctors and patients, have in cholesterol pills like Lipitor, Crestor, Vytorin, and Zocor, just to name a few of the most popular. This faith comes not from gullibility, but from carefully crafted drug company misdirection. There's no question statins reduce your LDL levels. The question is, do we really need to reduce your LDL to 100 or less? Sean Croxton invited me onto his show yesterday to clear up this confusion over the value of statins and shed some light on their…
CNN keeps airing “The Last Heart Attack,” in which Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells the story of how and why President Bill Clinton was put on a vegan diet by Dr. Dean Ornish, and how Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's #1 selling book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease echos the same dietary advice. As you know, reversing disease is something I care a lot about, but I'm not convinced Dr. Essylstyn's heart attack proof diet is delivering what he promises. Does this story really have a happy ending? Early in the show Dr. Gupta discusses Clinton’s strict vegan diet and defines its underlying philosophy:…
Imagine a world where everyone is on powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs. Not just sick people. Everyone. Astra Zeneca has imagined it, and now they're going to see their dream come true. On December 16, the FDA announced their approval of Astra Zeneca's cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor for use in people without high cholesterol despite the fact that a new study showed conclusively that the drug causes diabetes. By a vote of 12 to 4, the panel judged that even people at very low risk of heart disease should take the cholesterol medication anyway. "I do think the diabetes problem is real, but…
Your Doctor May be Paid to Prescribe Cholesterol-Lowering Statins Do you know what a HEDIS measure is? Most patients don't, and few doctors do. It's a measure of how well your doctor is following certain practice guidelines. 90 percent of insurance companies grade doctors using HEDIS. And it's important to know that these markers include getting your LDL cholesterol numbers down with drugs. If you have diabetes or cardiovascular disease, your doctor can be rewarded for following these rules. On the other hand, doctors who don't will be financially penalized. This is one reason why I do not work with…
