Just as the health care bill that will probably bankrupt our country becomes law, the law throws the drug corporations another bone by upgrading Crestor, a “blockbuster cholesterol medication,” according to a March 31st top-of-fold, page one New York Times article by Duff Wilson, “Plan to Widen Use of Statins Has Skeptics.”
Now elevated to a new category (a preventative measure), Crestor, currently the second best-selling cholesterol medication, is certain to bring in plenty of profits for Astra-Zeneca, Crestor’s creator. The testing that allowed the Food and Drug Administration (our health and safety watch dog) to approve the new criterion last month was for degrees of inflammation rather than for bad cholesterol, though developing the so-called preventative (and expensive) pill habit for perfectly healthy people believed to be at low risk of heart attacks or strokes could risk their developing Type 2 Diabetes. Dean Ornish, the author and doctor, said in an April 3rd letter to the editor that the wrong question is being asked. “It’s not: ‘Should Crestor be given to reduce inflammation?’ It should be: ‘What is the cause of chronic inflammation, and what can be done to address these causes?’ … ‘C-reactive protein and other biomarkers of inflammation are significantly reduced when people make comprehensive lifestyle changes…’ ”
If such subjects are of interest to you, then I recommend a wonderful book written by a writer from Little Rhodie, “Eating Your Way to Low Cholesterol or How I Lowered My Cholesterol Without Drugs” by Jeannie Serpa.
She doesn’t waste your time; she gets right to it. Half the dedication is to the memory of her brother, Robert Carroll, “who died of a heart attack on January 15, 2008.”
And the very next page is “a must-read” glossary of terms. It’s short and to the point, beginning with “arteries: blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to various parts of the body,” and ending two pages later with “Unsaturated Fats: Mono-unsaturated fats and poly-unsaturated fats are both unsaturated. These fats do not increase LDL cholesterol. They are usually derived from plant sources. Olive oil, canola oil, nuts, and avocados are good examples of unsaturated fats.” This short glossary is worth the price of the book ($19.99): it is boom! boom! To the point. It is the purpose, in two cohesive and coherent pages, what she’s telling you about. It’s all right there. Triglycerides are ”fats found in the blood, used by the body as a form of energy.” Then in capital letters, so you can’t help but get it, “HIGH BLOOD LEVELS of TRIGLYCERIDES ADD to the RISK of HEART ATTACK.” (She’s shouting because she’s trying to save us from ourselves.)
Personally, I have never given any of this much thought. I’ve been a Big-Salad- Every-Day person, and even when introduced to Jeannie Serpa a week or so ago, I bragged that I’d never had a cholesterol test in my life (true). I’m not one who runs to the doctor to have my temperature taken by an expert. If there’s something wrong with me, generally I wait it out. But I’m no spring chicken and, as she quotes herself in one of the wonderful quotes by various others scattered throughout the book, “He who loves his family watches his cholesterol.” And I’m a grandmother. So is she.
Here’s another quote: “I shall content myself with merely declaring my conviction that, for the seeker who would live in the fear of G0d and would see him face to face, restraint in diet both as to quantity and quality is as essential as restraint in thought and speech.” -- Mahatma Ghandi
She’s been there, done that. Here’s a sample from “Exercise? Oh, Dear!” (A list of eight excuses for not bothering: “Number 8: I hate to exercise.
So do I and so do millions of others. Get over it!”
Well, this book has gotten me to give up butter… And I cook French! (Or I used to.)
The next edition of this book, out in a couple more weeks, will have gluten and/or wheat-free symbols next to the appropriate recipes. It‘s available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. Get this book if you love your grandchildren. Hurry before the government forces us to get hooked on statins. (Joke.) ● Barbara Waterston, April 3, 2010