(US News & World Report) — Would you like a statin with your fries? Fast-food joints should distribute for free the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, taken by 24 million Americans to prevent heart disease and strokes, to offset the effects of a fatty meal, a new study suggests. The researchers, at Imperial College London, concluded that the cardiovascular toll of a daily meal consisting of a Quarter Pounder with cheese and a small milkshake would be neutralized by a statin pill served as a side order. The findings of the clinical trial, which involved 43,000 participants, will be published Sunday in the American Journal of Cardiology. “In terms of your likelihood of having a heart attack, taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast-food meal increases it,” lead researcher Darrel Francis told reporters. And providing the pills would cost less than 7 cents per customer, about the same as a packet of ketchup. A fast-food statin may not be enough, however. The British Heart Foundation, stressing that the drugs are not a “magic bullet,” recommends exercise and a healthy diet as the best bet for staving off heart problems, Reuters reports.
How to Decode Food Labels and Shop Like a Pro
Food labels can be confusing, even for seasoned shoppers. Does “trans fat-free” mean guilt-free? Is “organic” more healthful? Not always, says Bonnie Taub-Dix, nutrition expert and author of the upcoming book Read It Before You Eat It: How to Decode Food Labels and Make the Healthiest Choice Every Time. She’s created a guide that breaks down label lingo and shows how to detect misleading enticements, U.S. News’s Hanna Dubansky writes. Among the terms the book cautions to be wary of:
Serving Size. Isn’t a small package of cookies or a can of soup a single serving? No, says Taub-Dix—one serving is whatever the numbers on the label say it is. “You have to multiply the fat and calories by the number of servings listed on the label.” That can of soup showing 800 milligrams of sodium? Check the label. With the blessing of the Food and Drug Administration, the manufacturer defines the amount as two servings. Mistaking it for a single serving will have you downing 1,600 milligrams of sodium, higher than the American Heart Association’s recommended maximum of 1,500 milligrams for an entire day. She also wishes serving sizes reflected the manner in which people eat. Take cereal, for example. “The serving size is one ounce, which is good information,” says Taub-Dix. “But what does one ounce mean?” A one-ounce serving of Grape-Nuts is 3 tablespoons; an ounce of Cheerios fills one cup. Unless you’re measuring out cereal on a scale, she says, it’s hard to visualize what an ounce of cereal looks like.
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This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. There is no proof positive that cholesterol causes heart disease. They even want to put statins in drinking water just like Fluoride. The big pharma is at it again.
Read the ‘The great cholestrol con’ by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.
For heavens sake – why not just stop eating high fat fast food?
BAD IDEA. statins do nothing to prevent other diseases, such as diabetes. What are the food chains going to do, hand out pills for glucose control, how about one that suppresses appetites too so people who are junk food junkies wont get fat??? This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard. It always takes the responsibility off individuals to be in control of their own health. if they could hand out pills to make junk food more appealing the price would go so high because medicines are not cheap> but then again, maybe it would price the junk food places out of business or force them to sell affordable healthy food.
When companies are put be in charge of a person’s health, we will eventually create a society where personal issues such as health will be “someone else’s problem” and “the other’s guy’s fault.” Personal responsibility and prevention should be our priorities, not more regulation.
Or how about making companies provide for credit counseling when a person goes bankrupt because that person did not use self-control and brought the problem on him/herself? Get real people. This is not about what a company should be doing, IT IS an issue of PERSONAL responsibility and self-regulation.
The only thing a company should be held accountable for is the product they make, it’s contents and NOT what a consumer can control on his own. I do believe that a fast food chain should be responsible enough to make a better, health-conscious product, but beyond that, they are not responsible for the choices people make.
This is a ridiculous recommendation – a statin pill as a side-order with your quarter pounder! While the action of statins in decreasing the number of cardiovascular events is accepted, these researchers fail to take into account the class effect of statins in depleting the essential enzyme ubiquinone and also dolichol, since they act on the exact same pathway (mevalonate) that synthesizes cholesterol and which is inhibited by statin drugs!
Various published studies have demonstrated that even low exposure to statins such as atorvastatin, simvastatin, etc. significantly decrease the natural levels of ubiquinone – the essential enzyme that catalyzes energy in every human cell! As such, the most frequently reported side-effects of statins are those associated with ubiquinone deficiency: muscle pain, tiredness, exercise intolerance, memory loss and in some extreme cases, rhabdomylosis! Several studies also correlate the severity of cardiovascular disease, particularly congestive heart failure, with ubiquinone deficiency. The more severe the CVD, the more severe the ubiquinone deficiency! In fact the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association, recommends oral replacement of between 100-200mg ubiquinone in patients taking statins.
Before these so called experts make such irresponsible recommendations, they should take into account the impact on overall patient health of dispensing a statin like an OTC medication. One can just search YouTube for the subject “statins” “ubiquinone” “dolichol” and see much information reported on the subject. Or to be more scientific – to search PubMed or MedLine. Statins are excellent drugs and they have been shown indeed to save lives. But they should be used with responsibility and proper medical supervision. Here’s a write-up I made on the subject:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150196779015526
Red yeast rice, 600 mg. twice per day, is as effective if not moreso than any of the “statin’s” in my experience, and has none of the toxic side effects of the statins. If you google it, you will find that the statins are bad for your liver, reduce coenzyme q 10 in your body, have a definite “dumbing down” effect……..on and on. I my humble opinion, this toxic drug has to be one of the worst ever foisted onto the American public, and yet is the largest selling drug in history. Eating healthy foods is without a doubt important. Genetic factors, however, can be very positively influenced by red yeast rice. Other helpful cholesterol reducers for many people are polycosinol and niacin
And while we are on the subject, let’s not foget that cholestrol has very important positive effects for the human body. It is only dangerous when it becomes subject to oxydation by free radicals. Antioxidants are ctrical in the overall formula, therefore, in my humble view.