The main reason we have statins, is greed. Studies keep coming out showing very little usefulness for them compared to their toxicity potential.

The new family of cholesterol drugs is almost here. But it will take time to show effectiveness if there is any.

The whole premise of lowering cholesterol is in question. The statins were developed initially only for people with the genetic
familial hypercholesteremia...and they are not common. Those patients get really viscous blood..often the fat will rise in the collection tube and be visible. This leads to blood flow stagnation as a physical entity and hence blood clots form in the slow blood flow. Generalizing their problems to all people (including children) is a huge error, and has led to what we see now.

There is work now showing low cholesterol is a factor in developing Parkinson's. I think more diseases will be added.

Crestor's patent is almost expired...
http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/as...allenge_469203

I certainly detest that current TV commercial for it with the happy lady dancing around. Once Crestor is gone, the sales reps will stop visiting doctors' offices, to persuade more RXs to be written.

That will only leave Livalo on patent, and that one has a while to go now.

As the negative studies get published more and more on generic versions of statins, and law suits increase, then we will see doctors being more cautious with them.

Interesting! Had not heard of it.

Do you know anything about this test?

http://www.spectracell.com/clinicians/products/lpp/

I have heard of that test; it's a particle staining test. I don't know a ton about it. I've fallen a little out of step with keeping up on this topic (most of my attention has been on SFN, like many of us here), but I think that the NMR test is still the gold standard and is the only one recommended by the governing bodies that set the standard for doctors. Even then, your average doc might not know about or utilize this test. NMR is an expensive instrument and I would call it a specialty area of analytical chemistry that requires skilled personnel to run it. So this test probably ain't that cheap.

When I have a little more time later tonight, I'll try to find a straight forward article that explains LDL particle count and why it's the best direct marker to measure. It's also interesting because this explains why people who have cardiac events can have low cholesterol. Tim Russert falls into this camp.

Ok, thanks. I just want to be fully armed with information in case my LDL goes up on my low carb/higher fat diet now.

I have bad cardiac history on both sides of the family, but I also have the homozygous 9p21 cardiac risk variant as does about 23% of the population. We're at an increased risk of an early MI with no known pathology.

http://www.bhlinc.com/clinicians/test-descriptions/9p21

I don't lose sleep over it or anything, but cardiac-wise, I think this is my biggest issue.

A good starter article on LDL-P and LDL-C

http://www.docsopinion.com/health-an.../lipids/ldl-p/

I also like that they write about the discordance between LDL-P and LDL-C for some individuals.

Quality fat is healthy for most but there definitely is a small portion of the population that might have to watch their fat intake. I'm more familiar with the homozygous APOE4 gene (ancestral remnant), which makes individuals more prone to inflammation and oxidation stress, thus more prone to heart disease. Thanks for the link!

Hopefully you can keep on top of your lipid testing. If you ever see a problem, definitely bring the NMR profile up with your doc or ask for a physician who is well versed in advanced lipid testing.

When will the new family of peripheral neuropathy drugs be here?

Sorry for going off topic, I couldn't help myself.

I certainly would also like to see some
New nontoxic PN treatment arrive for us
As well! Sigh!

Thanks for this. Will learn more about NMR.

I'm E3/E3 on APOE, but my sister wasn't so lucky...she got one E4. Mom had Alzheimer's with no history on my dad's side, so Mom likely had the one E4. She also had very bad heart disease, and had the Bentall Procedure and a quad bypass when she was 67.

Funny you should say "nontoxic" Mrs D. as there are several PN clinical trials underway using tetrodotoxin, a known neurotoxin.