The Old Numbers Racket One way to keep a population unhealthy is to endlessly worry them about getting sick. For the last few decades, purveyors of cholesterol as the core of heart disease have created a medical industrial complex that has been hard to suppress. Now that complex is changing its spots again with new […]
Secrets of Statins (6/6/13)
More Secrets Statins are portrayed as the “wonder drugs” of the last two decades. Officially HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, their ability to decrease heart attack and stroke was originally laid down to their ability to decrease cholesterol synthesis. They did lower cholesterol. But that was not the main reason they worked. Statins, like many drugs, were […]
Is this really “The End of Illness”? (2/29/12)
We Need a New Health Paradigm Sorry. We’re not about to see “The End of Illness,” the title of the popular new health book written by oncologist/entrepreneur Dr. David Agus. Agus promises a lot. You will be able to “live robustly to a ripe old age of one hundred or more.” Then you will die, […]
Time rules life (2/27/12)
Time Rules Life The Romans knew it two thousand years ago – everything in life is timed. Your body is a hive of interlinked clocks. Some operate over less than a second, others work over seasons or years. Yet the most studied internal clocks are those that control our 24 hour day. Called circadian – […]
Cholesterol – what does those numbers really mean to me? (5/31/11)
Behind the Numbers Be careful what you wish for – especially when the target is something as complex as cholesterol and heart disease. Controlling cholesterol levels has near religious status among drug companies and many researchers. Statins have been the source of tens of billions in profits for drug companies, who have continued to […]