High Cholesterol
What’s in Your Frying Pan? Omega-6 or Omega-3 …
Americans have long been urged to embrace polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) vegetable oils because they are low in saturated fats. These oils made from corn, peanuts, soybeans, safflower and sunflower…
Cure or Catastrophe: The Unpredictability of Med…
Physicians who prescribe medications like to believe that their choices are based on evidence. In fact, there is a mantra that most prescribers have embraced: “Evidence Based Medicine,” abbreviate…
Show 1409: From Hippocrates to Hypocrisy: The Hi…
This Saturday morning, November 23, 2024, an expert from Australia helps us examine the hidden risks of healthcare. Healthcare providers have the best of intentions, but they simply cannot truly uphol…
How Can You Overcome the Harms of Sitting Too Mu…
How many hours a day do you sit? Be honest, please. If you work in front of a computer, as so many of us do, we’ll bet you spend more than eight hours a day sitting. And that doesn’t count time si…
Can Repatha Substitute for Statins to Lower Chol…
Not everyone can tolerate statins to lower cholesterol. Some people react to drugs like atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin or simvastatin with muscle pain and weakness, arthritis, mus…
Has Your Doctor Fired You? Can Doctors Do That?
The relationship between a patient and her doctor is special. Patients tell their doctors things they wouldn't tell anyone else. Doctors are expected to hold these revelations in confidence and to tre…
Fasting to Reduce the Risk of Diabetes
Public health officials concerned about the epidemic of diabetes and pre-diabetes have focused on weight loss through exercise and healthy eating. Increasingly, evidence suggests that intermittent fas…
How to Improve Your Cholesterol with Cocoa
We always enjoy learning about cocoa flavanols and how they can benefit our health. A few readers have reported on their personal experiments using cocoa flavanols to help with cholesterol control. Wi…
Low LDL Cholesterol Linked to Bleeding Strokes
Ask any golfer if you can have too low a golf score and he will think you're nuts. After all, the lowest score wins in golf. Ask almost any cardiologist if you can have too low LDL cholesterol levels …
Do Your Drug’s Benefits Outweigh Its Risks?
We are always surprised that medications seem to be held to a much lower standard than any other product or service. Why do healthcare professionals and patients willingly accept such poor performance…
Should You Restrict the Number of Eggs You Eat?
For decades, public health authorities have been warning Americans to restrict the number of eggs they eat. Egg yolks are rich in cholesterol, and high cholesterol levels are associated with heart dis…
Do Statins Lower CoQ10 Levels? Can Supplements C…
Doctors prescribe the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins as an essential step in treating heart disease. Many physicians also prescribe them for prevention. While many people take these medicin…
How Does Red Yeast Rice Compare to Statins?
Tens of millions of people take statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs. Many physicians believe such drugs are dramatically effective against heart disease. We will not deal with that controversial to…
Does Red Yeast Rice for Lowering Cholesterol Hav…
Has your doctor told you that your blood pressure is rising or your cholesterol is too high? Many people prefer to treat such conditions naturally if possible. But just because a treatment is natural …
What Is the Risk of Red Yeast Rice?
One of the pillars of heart disease prevention is keeping blood fats, especially cholesterol, under control. But doctors don't always agree on the best way to achieve this goal. Most recommend a healt…
Are Some People More Aggressive on Statins?
Most people are aware that statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs can cause muscle pain and weakness. Similar statin side effects include muscle cramping and soreness. In the worst case scenario, some…
Is It Safe to Take Red Yeast Rice for High Chole…
Statisticians have shown that people with elevated levels of LDL cholesterol are more likely to develop clogged arteries and coronary artery disease (Heart, Lung & Circulation, March 2018). If sen…
Repatha to Lower LDL Cholesterol: Uses, Abuses, …
There are powerful cholesterol-lowering medicines making waves. Many health professionals are convinced that there is no such thing as too low a golf score or a cholesterol level. They are right about…
Will You Lower Your Cholesterol With Milk Thistl…
Is your cholesterol high? If you have a family history of high cholesterol, particularly if you had parents or siblings who died of heart disease, your doctor will do as much as possible to help you c…
Should Everyone Over 65 Take a Statin to Prevent…
Do statins help older people live longer? That is a question that has been controversial for decades. Tens of millions of people are currently taking a statin-type cholesterol-lowering drug every day.…
The Statin Bandwagon Rolls On!
Last year, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published its latest statin guidelines in JAMA (Aug. 23/30, 2022). The statin bandwagon has gathered speed, but the data leave a lo…
Does It Make Sense to Order Your Own Laboratory …
At one time, only physicians could order laboratory tests such as thyroid-stimulating hormone or cholesterol. Now, however, many companies offer lab tests direct to consumers using the internet. Does …
Shocking Conflicts of Interest in Nonprofit Pati…
Americans are big boosters of patient advocacy organizations (PAOs). They contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to nonprofits like the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and …
Natural Ways to Get Your Cholesterol Down
Cholesterol is only one of numerous risk factors for heart disease. However, physicians can't do much about some of your other risk factors, such as your family history. They can prescribe medications…
Does CRP Inflammation Trump LDL-C for Heart Dise…
Ask most physicians to name the most important risk factor for heart disease, and the chances are good they will name LDL cholesterol as the baddest of bad actors. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol …
How to Improve Cholesterol and Triglycerides wit…
After several decades of striving to avoid fat in general, Americans have finally gotten the memo: some fat is good for us! Scientists have been studying omega-3 fatty acids for decades. Now many folk…
Statins and Muscle Pain: What Else Can He Do To …
One cornerstone of preventive cardiology is controlling LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels. Doctors use statin drugs as their primary tools in this effort. Many people respond well to th…
How Well Do CAC Scores Predict Heart Attack Risk…
Do you have plaque in your coronary arteries? Unless you have had symptoms that sent you to a coronary cath lab, you might not know. Over the last decade or two, though, doctors have used CT scans to …
What Do You Know About the New Cholesterol Drug …
Some people with high cholesterol need to lower it with medications. By far the most common drugs doctors prescribe for this purpose are statins such as atorvastatin, rosuvastatin or lovastatin. Howev…
Is It Unhealthy to Drink Unfiltered Coffee?
The health consequences of drinking coffee have stirred quite a bit of controversy over the years. According to legend, a goatherd noticed that his goats were extra frisky after eating coffee berries,…
Is It Safe to Take Alli for a Long Time?
We love the idea of losing weight with less effort. Perhaps that is why people seem to embrace new diet drugs when they become trendy. Although all the attention these last several months has been on …
Will Nexletol (Bempedoic Acid) Replace Statins?
There’s a new drug in the cholesterol-control sandbox. It’s called Nexletol. The generic name for this medication is bempedoic acid. In truth, the drug is not new. The FDA approved Nexletol in Feb…
Is it Risky to Take Atorvastatin with Grapefruit…
Physicians and pharmacists are super busy these days. Some pharmacists have confided to us that they feel like they are in an I love Lucy skit like this one where Lucy and Ethel wrap chocolates. Patie…
Is Coffee Really Bad for You?
Health professionals just can’t seem to make up their minds about coffee. Is it good or really bad for you? They have been arguing about the pros and cons of coffee drinking for at least half a cent…
Can You Lower Your Cholesterol with Bergamot?
How do you control your cholesterol? Many people take a statin medication such as atorvastatin or simvastatin to keep their blood fats within normal range. On the other hand, you might prefer a more…
Are You Wasting Money On Supplements Against Hea…
Doctors appear to hate dietary supplements. That is the conclusion I draw from their reaction to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Nov. 6, 2022). We have he…
Why Do Doctors Hate Stories of Statin Side Effec…
We understand why some doctors dislike hearing complaints from patients about drug side effects. After all, they have promised to “first, do no harm.” That was purportedly the message from the anc…
New Analysis Disputes Dogma that All Seniors Nee…
The American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) created a risk calculator that tells physicians and patients when someone should take a statin-type cholesterol-loweri…
Show 1301: What Are Forever Chemicals Doing in F…
In our nationally syndicated radio show this week, our guests discuss “forever chemicals” (PFAS) used in a wide range of products. How do they affect our health? What Are PFAS, or Forever Chemical…
What Is the Best Diet to Lower Cholesterol?
Have you ever wondered what you should be eating to optimize your health? Nutrition scientists have been arguing that the entire dietary pattern matters more than a handful of individual foods reputed…