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- Lower Cholesterol, Lower Risk of Stroke, Heart Attack- Balance is key-
Lower Cholesterol, Lower Risk of Stroke, Heart Attack- Balance is key-
“The analysis shows that the reduction in major vascular events — 21% per 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol overall”
Statin therapy lowers a person’s cholesterol. The lower your cholesterol, the lower your risk of heart attack and stroke. As a person who developed chemotherapy-induced chronic Afib and cardiomyopathy, I am always looking for evidence-based, non-toxic therapies to lower my cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, BMI, etc. etc.
As a cancer survivor living with a host of short, long-term and late stage side effects from all of the toxicity I underwent during my several years of conventional therapies, I am wary of conventional medicine. Frankly, I just don’t trust it. Or I should say that I don’t trust conventional therapy’s thinking about the risks and benefits of various therapies.
Though there are a number of nutritional supplementation therapies as well as lifestyle therapies that can lower a person’s cholesterol, I admit that you have to work at lowering your cholesterol naturally. Taking a low dose statin is 1) effective, 2) exhibits few side effects 3) is easy and 4) is relatively inexpensive.
Let me be clear. Statins do cause side effects. The issue is to balance the risks and benefits. By this I mean take a low dose of a statin while supplementing and following a cholesterol lowering lifestyle through nutrition and frequent, modrate exercise.
To learn more about balancing conventional and non-conventional cholesterol therapies scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
thanks,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Statin therapy reduces risk of major cardiovascular events irrespective of age
“A meta-analysis finds that despite less evidence in the over 75s than in younger patients, statins reduce the risk of vascular events in older people. The research found no adverse effects of statin therapy on non-vascular mortality or cancer. Statin therapy reduces major vascular events, and a new meta-analysis shows this is the case even in patients over 75 years of age. The research, published in The Lancet, summarises evidence from 28 randomised controlled trials, including 186,854 patients, 14,483 of whom were aged over 75.
Irrespective of age, statins reduced risks of major vascular events by about a fifth per 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol. For major coronary events the overall reduction was about a quarter per 1 mmol/L reduction overall, but ranged from about 30% in those aged <55 years to around 20% in those aged >75. The relative risk reductions for stroke and for coronary revascularisation (coronary stenting or bypass surgery) were similar in all age groups…
Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs that are widely prescribed to patients at increased risk of heart attacks or strokes. Evidence from randomised trials has shown that statin therapy reduces this risk among a wide range of individuals but there has been uncertainty about their benefits in older people.
In the past, trials that looked at the effect of statin therapy reported significant cardiovascular risk reductions in the 65-70 age group but there have been questions about their benefits in older patients, particularly those over 75. Statin therapy is often discontinued in older patients in part because of this question around risk and benefit.
The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration looked at 23 trials that compared statin treatment to a control group and a further five that investigated intensive versus standard statin therapy. They divided patients into six age groups, and investigated effects on major vascular events (comprising major coronary events, strokes and coronary revascularisations), cancer incidence and cause specific mortality.
Of the 186,854 participants in the trials that were reviewed, with a mean age of 63 years, 14,483 were older than 75 years.
The analysis shows that the reduction in major vascular events — 21% per 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol overall — is similar and significant in all age groups, including those over 75 years of age. For major coronary events the overall reduction is 24% per 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL, but decreases slightly with age. The study also shows no increased risk of non-vascular mortality or cancer in any age group…
The present analyses focused on the effects of statin therapy on major vascular events, mortality and cancer, and the authors limited their meta-analysis to large trials, known to generate the most reliable evidence. Previous studies have shown that the benefits of statins outweigh the risk of other adverse events (such as myopathy), and ongoing work in this area is being conducted by the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration.
Writing in a linked Comment, Bernard M Y Cheung of the Queen Mary Hospital at the University of Hong Kong says: “Even if risk reduction in people older than 75 years is less than expected, statin therapy may still be justified by a high baseline cardiovascular risk, which is usually present in older people. The present meta-analysis makes a case to reduce LDL cholesterol in people at risk of cardiovascular events regardless of age, provided that the benefits outweigh the risks and the patient accepts long term treatment.”