An Old Cholesterol Remedy Is New Again
sic - FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
By MICHAEL MASON
Published: January 23, 2007
Perhaps you heard it? The wail last month from the labs of heart researchers and the offices of Wall Street analysts?
Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant, halted late-stage trials of a cholesterol drug called torcetrapib after investigators discovered that it increased heart problems — and death rates — in the test population.
Torcetrapib wasn’t just another scientific misfire; the drug was to have been a blockbuster heralding the transformation of cardiovascular care. Statin drugs like simvastatin (sold as Zocor) and atorvastatin (Lipitor) lower blood levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, thereby slowing the buildup of plaque in the arteries.
But torcetrapib worked primarily by increasing HDL, or good cholesterol. Among other functions, HDL carries dangerous forms of cholesterol from artery walls to the liver for excretion. The process, called reverse cholesterol transport, is thought to be crucial to preventing clogged arteries.
Many scientists still believe that a statin combined with a drug that raises HDL would mark a significant advance in the treatment of heart disease. But for patients now at high risk of heart attack or stroke, the news is better than it sounds. An effective HDL booster already exists.
It is niacin, the ordinary B vitamin.
In its therapeutic form, nicotinic acid, niacin can increase HDL as much as 35 percent when taken in high doses, usually about 2,000 milligrams per day. It also lowers LDL, though not as sharply as statins do, and it has been shown to reduce serum levels of artery-clogging triglycerides as much as 50 percent. Its principal side effect is an irritating flush caused by the vitamin’s dilation of blood vessels.
Despite its effectiveness, niacin has been the ugly duckling of heart medications, an old remedy that few scientists cared to examine. But that seems likely to change.
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Now doesn't that seem to fit in with what I had mentioned earlier here in the blog - first my speaking about the shaman vs. the drug company then my scathing rant about the drug companies themselves (goddamn legal drug overlords). Well now you see it is coming full circle, as I already knew (especially since I wear my conspiracy glasses). And is it really such a coincidence that Pfizer is closing it's plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn? It seems that they had sunk all their money into backing this drug which caused more harm than good when all the while there has been a vitamin that does the same healing, but of COURSE they would not let you know that. In fact, there have been press releases I have seen that have tried to downplay the benefits of vitamins - and in fact the FDA does not even recognize the claims made on packaging by the makers of vitamins. Hmmm. Do you think it is also a coincidence that people who are into "health" and "vitamins" are looked down upon as new-age space cadets? Empty gurus who are holding on to a passing fad? Well the fad hasn't passed and I think more folks should look into the benefits of vitamins and healthier alternatives to Western medicine. Western medicine is based on MONEY, not health or healing. Here in the U.S. we put a program on Discovery Channel every once in a while which touts the miracles of modern medicine and medical technology in which we reapair the cleft pallet of a young Philippine child, or straighten the spine of an African boy or repair the severely deformed face of a young American girl stricken with severe Treacher-Collins disease. These are all good things, but one must understand that these are extreme medical cases that need extreme measures. Yes, we in the West are awesome for that. But not for drug therapies. We should be learning from the East in that respect. And not only learn from the East, but give people the choice to choose whatever such healing we so desire - not to try to downplay every other alternative. Sounds a lot like politics to me...and medicine should have nothing at all to do with politics.
