Heart Disease: How Inflammation May Be The Real Culprit, Not Cholesterol

Excerpts:

Someone sent me an interesting link this week. It was to a letter which had been published in the Daily Mail newspaper on 13th March. Entitled ‘Medical statistics which just don’t add up…’ it was written by Dr G Edlin, a doctor based in north-west London in the UK. In the letter, he puts forward the idea that heart disease is closely tied to the amount of coal burned in a nation. For example, in Britain, both coal consumption and heart disease rose to a peak in 1974, followed by a steep fall in 1978. He also makes this telling comment: “Three-quarters of the fall occurred before statins were introduced.” While statins have been praised for their supposedly wonderful heart-disease protective powers, the reality is their apparent success has been riding on the back of a consistent downward trend in heart disease rates.

Reading Dr Edlin’s letter, I found myself being impressed with his ability and willingness to publicly expose myths, and take what might be viewed as an anti-statin stance. I had a look online to see if I could more from the good doctor. I found another letter from him, this time in another UK daily, the Telegraph newspaper. It seems that Dr Edlin is acutely aware of the very limited potential benefits statins have. Why does he continue to prescribe them? I don’t know, but I do know here in the UK guidelines instruct doctors to get people’s cholesterol levels down using lifestyle adjustments, and if that fails (as it usually does), to prescribe drugs like statins. So great is the UK Government’s enthusiasm for this practice that it actually remunerates doctors for doing it. Doctors may also come under pressure from patients to prescribe statins, although I don’t think this happens as much here compared to, say, the US, where drug companies can advertise directly to the public.

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