Regarding the 11/10/08 New York Times article “Cholesterol-Fighting
Drugs Show Wider Benefit” by Pam Belluck
This important study supports the conception that the ideal total
cholesterol is between 90-130, similar to all extant societies that do
not yet have grocery stores, electricity, or automobiles. Those cultures
also have no heart attack, diabetes, cancer of the breast or colon or
prostate. That total cholesterol translates as an LDL of 55-60 as
achieved in the JUPITER study. Yet the whole story also involves proper
percent body fat (the lack of fat under the skin so that the muscle
bundles can be seen on the abdomen), the inflammatory protein cardiac
CRP of 1 or less, triglycerides of less than 100, another cholesterol
congener LP a of mid-normal values, homocysteine of mid normal values =
8, the A1C diabetes test less than 5.5, a hemoglobin red blood count of
14 or less & so on. This important study shows what medicines can do to
reduce heart disease, the above sited comparative sociology shows what
we can do without medicines to reduce disease frequency & costs.
H Robert Silverstein, MD
Medical Director, Preventive Medicine Center