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…
Penalties for Doctors who Refuse to Sell Cholesterol Drugs On Wednesday July 9,2008 the Garden Island Newspaper published my Letter To The Editor (Thank you Garden Isle) I feel my patients and the people of Hawai‘i have the right to know some of what goes on behind the scenes at HMSA, our island’s number one health insurance company. This week, I will participate in a teleconference about a new initiative program created by HMSA as part of what they call “quality of care.” If you have diabetes, your doctor will be paid more if he or she convinces you to buy…
You know cholesterol pills will lower your cholesterol. But do you know cholesterol pills don't prevent heart attacks by lowering cholesterol? They work by what the pharmaceutical companies call "a pleitropic effect" meaning they have so many effects we can't understand or predict them all. Isoprene: A Building Block for Cellular Health Cholesterol pills called statins lower cholesterol by blocking the enzyme that forms a chemical required for the earliest steps of cholesterol manufacture, the making of isoprene units. If you can't make isoprene units, you can't make cholesterol. But your body uses isoprene units for a whole bunch of…
