Barbara’s Health News You Can Use

I have been keeping up with the news at the American Heart Association conference.  Some reserachers reported that people with low cholesterol levels and no big risk for heart disease could dramtically lower the rates of heart disease, death and stroke if they took the drug Crestor.  One of the problems with the study is that it was funded by the company that makes Crestor. HUM! The other problem is that it could cost someone (you and me probably) $9 billion a year.  According to Dr. Mark Hlatky, a cardiologist from Stanford and the voice of reason, about 120 people would have to take Crestor for 2 years to prevent a single heart attack, stroke or death ($18 million).  Crestor cost $3.45 per day. That’s $9 billion a year to prevent 30,000 heart attacks, strokes or deaths. This drug would have to be taken for the rest of one’s life.  There are a number of strategies a person could do that is less costly and more effective like: exercise every day for up to 1 hour, make good food choices, lose weight, quit smoking, manage stress (exercise helps with this problem) before taking a drug that has a laundry list of side effects.  But one of the good things that were reported as a result of this study and 2 others is that C-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation, which costs about $80, is an excellent test to measure one’s risk of heart disease.  Rather than drug therapy - try lifestyle strategies, you’ll be glad you did.   

As a nutritionist and health educator, I am going to try to update this Health News You Can Use blog bi-weekly.  There’s so much health information out there daily I feel a need to comment on some of the stuff.  Plus, when it comes to hearts, I can ask my son, Geoff, who is a Cardiology Fellow at St. Vincent’s Hospital in INDY, when it comes to health insurance strategies, I can ask my son, Chris, who works in strategic planning for Aetna in Hartford, CT and is a public health guru, or general health topics I can ask my son, Jon, who is a 4th year medical student at the University of Louisville’s Med school.