Statins Reduce Heart Attack Risks

The cholesterol medication Crestor, manufactured by AstraZeneca, can reduce by about half the risk for heart attack, stroke and death among patients who do not have high cholesterol levels but tested positive for high levels of a protein linked with increased risk for heart attack, according to a study presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Wall Street Journal reports (Winslow, Wall Street Journal, 11/10).

For the study, called JUPITER, researchers led by Paul Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease in Women at Brigham and Women's Hospital, examined almost 18,000 patients worldwide. Participants included men ages 50 and older and women ages 60 and older who did not have histories of heart disease or high cholesterol levels. However, participants had high levels of C-reactive protein, which indicates inflammation in the body. Participants took either Crestor, part of a class of cholesterol medications called statins, or a placebo.

Researchers had planned to continue the study for five years but decided to end the study after two years because of the apparent benefits of Crestor cited by independent safety board that monitored the research (Belluck, New York Times, 11/10). According to the study, in comparison with participants who took a placebo, those who took Crestor were 54% less likely to have a heart attack, 48% less likely to have a stroke, 46% less likely to need angioplasty or bypass surgery, 44% less likely to experience any of those cardiovascular events and 20% less likely to die from any cause (Stein, Washington Post, 11/10).

Ridker is an inventor involved with patents related to CRP held by Brigham and Women's and has received grants and fees from AstraZeneca (Wall Street Journal, 11/10). Reaction
According to researchers, the results of the study could help explain the large number of heart attacks and strokes that occur in individual with normal cholesterol levels, as well as promote the use of tests for CRP levels. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH, said medical groups likely will revise guidelines to recommend that physicians test patients for CRP levels and prescribe statins to those who have high levels (New York Times, 11/10).

Experts said that U.S. physicians might prescribe statins to as many as seven million more patients as a result of the study (Marchione, AP/Austin American-Statesman, 11/10). Treatment of patients with high CRP levels with Crestor or other statins could prevent as many as 50,000 heart attacks, strokes and deaths annually, experts said (Maugh, Los Angeles Times, 11/10). American College of Cardiology President Douglas Weaver, said, "This takes prevention to a whole new level," adding, "Yesterday, you would not have used a statin for patients whose cholesterol was normal. Today, you will" (Washington Post, 11/10).

However, some physicians questioned the need for treatment of all patients with no risk factors for heart attack other than high CRP levels, as few cases occur in such patients and the practice could cost as much as $9 billion annually. In an editorial that accompanied the study, Mark Hlatky, a Stanford University cardiologist, "Everybody likes the idea of prevention," adding, "We need to slow down and ask how many people are we going to be treating with drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent heart disease, versus a lot of other things we're not doing" to improve health (AP/Austin American-Statesman, 11/10).

The study is available online. An extract of the editorial also is available online.

CBS's "Evening News" on Monday reported on the study. The segment includes comments from Ridker, Nabel and a patient who takes a statin (LaPook, "Evening News," CBS, 11/10).

Washington Post reporter Rob Stein on Monday at 11 a.m. hosted an online discussion that focused on the study (Stein, Washington Post, 11/10).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

on the power of belief

Michael Neill (bestselling author & probably the world's foremost happy success coach) says that there are only two questions you really need to answer in terms of getting what you want:

1. What do you want?
2. What stops you?

While it really is as simple as that, there are a number of factors that can make it challenging to get "clean" answers to the "What do you want" question. Here are some of the "other factors" that I'm aware of:

• Thinking it's not OK to want what we want
• Thinking it's not possible to get what we want
• The "I don't know what I want" story
• Thinking we need to get what we want in order to be happy
• Thinking something bad will happen if we get what we want
• Thinking we'll become something bad if we get what we want
• Thinking we don't deserve what we want
• Thinking others won't approve if we get what we want

Here are some of my favourite questions for helping clarify what you really want:

• What do you want?
• How will you know you've got it?
• What would you want if you didn't have to be unhappy about not getting it?
• What would you want if you knew you couldn't fail?
• What would you want if you knew it was OK to fail?
• What would you want if you were guaranteed to get it?
• What are you afraid would happen if you got what you want?
• What are you afraid it would it mean about you if you got what you want?
• How could you make sense of the idea that you're already getting exactly what you want, that what you're getting at the moment is actually what you want?
• If there were a miracle tonight, & when you woke up tomorrow, everything was exactly as you want it to be, how would you know a miracle had occurred? What would you see, what would you hear, what would you feel, what would you believe, what would you experience that would let you know a miracle had taken place?

Once you get a really clear answer to the "What do you want?" questions, that's half the battle - when you allow yourself to want what you really want, you tap into a source of motivation & passion that will give you the energy you need to really take action & get what you want.

But there's a second part.

What stops you?

All too often (I'm talking about 90% of the time or more) the answer is "limiting beliefs".

• Limiting beliefs about what's possible in this world
• Limiting beliefs about what's possible for YOU
• Limiting beliefs about what you're worth
• Limiting beliefs about what you deserve
• Limiting beliefs about what you're capable of

Of course, there are other factors - lack of money, lack of time, lack of skill. But the person who has control over their beliefs can exert a massive influence over all of these factors.

On the other hand, if you can't control your beliefs, then your beliefs are controlling you, the results you get & the quality of your experiences in life!

The person who CAN'T control their beliefs, on the other hand, is the victim of their programming... the set of unconscious beliefs & ideas about the world that they've been learning ever since the day they were born.

The Psychological Effect of our "laying of hands"

Martin,

I am going over this again because I think it it vitally important:

You say

"But would we still need the charade of doing something, in order to get the
psychological effect?"

Even if this was in jest (which it probably was) it must be clear that any form of deceit in the consultation with the patient is counter-productive. ....

You have to genuinely believe in what you are doing. Which is where our training and our science and our discipline are so important.

We have to hunt down self illusion and wooly thinking. We have to resist the the idea that rigor and training don't matter and 'so let's all get together and do healing work'.

There are many here on the forum whom embody these principles.. ..most recently Robert and David who may disagree at times but both clearly are on the same quest for truth and knowledge.

JJ

Brian -

That is a very interesting and relevant point. I always wonder how much my
patients improve because of what I do to them with my hands, and how much is
despite what I do but because i am doing it "nicely" - being reassuring,
attentive etc.

Maybe we should concentrate less on our techniques and more on being "nice".

But would we still need the charade of doing something, in order to get the
psychological effect?

Martin

--- In OsteopathyForAll@ yahoogroups. com, brian mckenna
wrote:
>
> i think it was in the book the biomechanics of LBP that they said
something like "when people consult you they are not saying they have back
pain, but that they have back pain and cannot cope any more"
> by helping them to cope through support in all its forms, manual as
well as psychosocial can we prevent them becoming chronic and or save the
NHS money by reducing care seeking behaviour?
>

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"Find it, fix it, and leave it alone. But make sure you find it, make sure
you fix it, before you leave it alone!!" -Dr. Andrew Taylor Still