Wellness Weekly

CRP: Yes this is still in the news and I am continuing to try to wrap my mind around it all. To help, there was an NPR show this week that had the lead researcher from the JUPITER study as well as a physician who was not involved in the study. I also read a WSJ on the article and the actual journal with the research results. To review. Two indicators for heart disease risk and risk of heart attack or stroke are cholesterol levels and levels of inflammation. One inflammation marker is known as C Reactive Protein. Lowering total and LDL cholesterol levels is protective in persons who have high levels. Some individuals do not have high LDL but do have high CRP. If I remember correctly, it is best to have CRP less than 1. When mine was checked it was .5. That number is mg per deciliter. There has been a lot of success in reducing cholesterol levels with statin drugs. Now the question has become, what if any benefit would statins provide to people who have normal cholesterol but high CRP. Could taking a statin reduce the number of adverse health outcomes like heart disease and stroke? According to the JUPITER study, yes. I still believe that diet and exercise are the first defense AND offense for people and that is exactly what the physician on NPR said. It is important to know that all medications have side effects and putting everyone on a drug is costly both physically and financially. The JUPITER study was paid for by the maker of Crestor, however, it was a double blind placebo controlled study, which should mean that no one knew who was getting the statin and who was getting a sugar pill, so to speak. Also, the makers of Crestor were not privy to the results of the study until the manuscript had been written by the independent researchers. There are some interesting points in the study. First, it involved a lot of people and there were things that would allow someone into the study and things to keep them out. They did have to have elevated CRP and the average was 4mg. I notice too that they asked about smoking status and the majority of people in this study were not smokers nor did they have a family history of heart disease. So two groups of relatively healthy people, matched for similarities and given a drug randomly, had two significantly different outcomes. There were lower adverse events in the Crestor group AND their CRP levels came down where as the study groups did not. What we don’t know is if we had two groups of 8 thousand each and one group ate a Mediterranean diet for example and exercised five days a week if they TOO would have the same positive outcomes. Because as was said by both physicians on the NPR show, the problem is the increase in obesity and diabetes which contributes significantly to heart disease.

How old are your arteries? Just as scientists have discovered a way to determine a lungs age, so have they figured out how to assess the age of one’s arteries. I imagine that as we age, even under the best of circumstances, our arteries will have some hardening. So the doctors can determine the level of hardening or thickening that most 30 year olds or 40 year olds have for example and then test people to see if their arteries are aging appropriately. This is important because with the aforementioned obesity epidemic children’s arteries are ageing at an accelerated rate so much so that some ten year olds are said to have the arteries of 45 year olds. OF course, I would like to think that if they were THIS 43 year old writer’s arteries they would not be so bad off!

HPV: In this past year I have mentioned the Merck vaccine named Gardasil and have offered my two cents worth on its value. Of course I am concerned about giving this to everyone because we do not know what long term consequences there may be. I am also concerned that it is marketed by Merck as a cervical cancer vaccine and that is not what it is. Pap smears and the removal of precancerous lesions or cells is what prevents cervical cancer. I am concerned that Merck wants ALL women to take the vaccine when ½ of all adults have been exposed to the human papillomavirus virus already. The vaccine is best for girls who have not yet had sexual activity and that is the group that may be most at risk for any long term consequence. ACK! But here is the real kicker. Now a study has found a protective effect of this vaccine for men. Well…….. You can’t call it a cervical cancer vaccine if you want men to get it can you. So NOW, Merck is calling it a genital warts vaccine, which it is, to an extent. Bottom line… use caution, use a condom and don’t have sex with everybody!

Menus: What I am 100 percent in favor of is calorie and nutrition content available for any food that I might eat at a restaurant. The state of NY began this requirement and the news this week is that it may become a national trend. This is good. We should all be aware of what we are eating. You can choose to eat 3000 cals a day instead of 2000 but you need to know that you are.

Ok, last weekend I made spaghetti sauce, today I made sugar and nearly fat free biscotti. I hope they came out okay! (the fat would be from the eggs, 15 grams)


Happy Day