OTC statin

[pcovers]

Originally Posted by boyscout

There are safer alternatives that i've been taking. its this product called cholest off. it has sterols and stanols and those help lower cholesterol. my levels have dropped significantly. i also eat healthier and exercise regularly. you might want to try this stuff and its an otc product.

This is a reasonable approach. However, it is very important to keep in mind the ultimate objective. The objective is not really to lower cholesterol, the objective is to reduce morbidity. We make assumptions regarding the reduction in morbidity as it relates to reducing cholesterol.

No matter which side of the statin camp one is on, there is very large volume of double blind, peer reviewed research that demonstrates a reduction in morbidity associated with taking a statin.

I think without a similar body of research on other cholesterol lowering agents, you are going on blind assumption. I am an advocate of natural alternatives, just make sure you understand that what you think you are accomplishing may not be that at all. It isn’t about cholesterol numbers it is about deaths and heart attacks. I want to see the data that shows a reduction in these two events in association with taking sterol/stanols.

[zip2play]

Tobias,

Oh how sane the British are. The best we in the USA can look for is allowing one of these money-makers (pravastatin I believe) to go GENERIC in 2006. American Drug Companies GREEDILY guard their profits and thus I won't be surprised if even this generic is subverted in the next two years!
"Ohhh, some people get sore knees with pravastatin!!!" or some such yammering excuse to disallow the generic !

Mexican have the best idea, virtually EVERYTHING is allowed OTC and compete pricewise as a result.

Thanks for posting heads-up.