The New York Times published an article yesterday about new research showing that raising HDL cholesterol levels with extended-release niacin does not save lives, and may actually be worse than simply trying to lower LDL levels.
Gardiner Harris writes:Common wisdom has been that such patients should take a statin drug like Lipitor or Zocor to lower bad cholesterol and, in many cases, the vitamin niacin to raise their good cholesterol. But in the trial, niacin provided no benefit over simple statin therapy.What?! You mean, doctors don't have the first clue about how cholesterol really works? I, for one, am shocked. SHOCKED, I tell you. So I guess those of us who think that you can stay healthy by, oh, I dunno, following healthy eating guidelines and getting some exercise, will continue to spend our dollars at the farmer's market and not the bloody drug companies. Hmph.The results are part of a string of studies that suggest that what doctors thought they knew about cholesterol may be wrong. Studies that track patients over time have for decades shown that patients with higher levels of high-density lipoproteins (H.D.L., or good cholesterol) tend to live longer and have fewer heart problems than those with lower levels of this cholesterol.
Not surprisingly, doctors thought that if they could raise H.D.L. levels, their patients would benefit. So far, that assumption is not panning out. Nobody knows why.
In 2006, Pfizer halted development of a drug that raised good cholesterol levels after studies showed that the medicine increased the risks of death. And on Thursday, government scientists announced that Niaspan, an extended release form of niacin, not only did not provide any protection against heart attacks when taken with Zocor in patients with heart disease but also slightly increased their risk of stroke.
“We were stunned, to say the least,” said Dr. William E. Boden, a professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo who was a trial investigator
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