High Cholesterol
Are New Cholesterol Drugs Way Too Pricey?
Are the new cholesterol-lowering drugs such as alirocumab (Praluent) and evolocumab (Repatha) marvelous breakthroughs for treating heart disease? Or are they irrelevant because most patients who might…
Quitting Sugar Made a Big Impact on Blood Pressu…
Once people learn about common side effects of medications to treat elevated cholesterol or high blood pressure, they are often curious about non-drug approaches to heart health. The doctor may recomm…
Is Red Yeast Rice Safe with a Statin?
One of the most divisive topics in health care right now is whether it makes sense to take a statin if you don't have heart disease. Some physicians are adamant that this is essential, especially for …
How Can You Tell If You Need a Statin?
Dr. Steve Nissen is Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. He maintains that "56 million Americans are considered eligible for statin therapy, with about half a…
Show 1085: The Statin Standoff and New Drugs for…
Cardiologists agree that we should all be getting regular exercise and eating a healthful diet with lots of vegetables and fruits. But they don't agree on which of us should be taking statins to prote…
Is Lowering Cholesterol with Saturated Fats a Pa…
If you have been paying attention, you are no doubt aware that saturated fats like butter or coconut oil are a dietary no-no. The theory is that these fats, which are solid at room temperature, can cl…
Does a Nonagenarian Need to Worry About Choleste…
Doctors interested in preventive medicine often quote Benjamin Franklin approvingly. However, he wasn't thinking of medicine when he noted that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (Actual…
How to Ease Statin-Induced Muscle Pain
Statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs are an important part of every cardiologist's tool box. They lower cholesterol, which is a significant risk factor for heart disease. People who already have hea…
Lovaza for High Triglycerides Eased Joint Pain
What do you call a side effect that is beneficial? One reader took the prescription drug Lovaza for high triglycerides and made a very welcome discovery about joint pain. Doctors never prescribe Lovaz…
Does the New Cholesterol Drug Repatha Save Lives…
The results are finally in on an eagerly anticipated trial of a new cholesterol-lowering medicine. Many cardiologists are happy with the results, calling the drug a breakthrough. But others are disapp…
Has Your Doctor Fired You?
The relationship between a patient and her doctor is special. Patients tell their doctors things they wouldn't tell anyone else. Doctors are expected to hold these revelations in confidence and to tre…
What Are the Benefits of Cinnamon and Honey?
Some of the most interesting discoveries are due to serendipity. That applies not only to scientists working in a lab whose lucky accident opens a new line of research. (Imagine Alexander Fleming and…
How to Lower Your Cholesterol with Oat Fiber
Scientists have known for years that consuming oats can lower your cholesterol. In fact, the first study showing that oat bread instead of white bread reduced LDL cholesterol was published in 1963. Ne…
Listen to Dr. DuBroff Discuss the Cholesterol Hy…
We spoke with cardiologist and lipidologist Robert DuBroff, MD, a few months ago about his take on the cholesterol hypothesis. Since that time, he has retired from his position as associate professor…
Will Eating Cheese Boost Your Cholesterol?
Cheese is a delicious dairy product that is rich in saturated fat. As a result, the dietary guidelines recommend limiting cheese consumption to prevent raising cholesterol. Cheese and Your Heart: Dani…
What Are the Most Common Statin Side Effects?
Many health professionals are convinced that statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs do not cause any side effects. These physicians published a review that stated that very idea (European Journal of …
Is Coconut Oil Good for Your Health?
We don't know why nutrition controversies seem to be especially emotional. Battles over butter, eggs and salt have raged on for years. Other fats may also trigger heated arguments. Is coconut oil go…
Is Butter Better? Why Butter is Back with a Bull…
For decades and decades we were told that we had to avoid saturated fat. Cream in our coffee, butter on our bread and cream cheese on our bagel were considered sinful because such foods were supposed …
Is Bad LDL Cholesterol Good for Older People?
For decades we have been told that so-called bad LDL cholesterol will clog our arteries and cause heart attacks and premature death. That is why statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs have been prescr…
Will A Free Lunch Influence Your Doctor’s …
Ask most physicians whether a free lunch from a drug company would affect their prescribing patterns and the chances are pretty good that they would say no. Some would be highly insulted by the very i…
Why Should You Order Your Own Blood Tests?
Do you know what your vitamin levels are? What about Vitamin B12 in particular? How about thyroid status? Why not order your own blood tests so you can have data on TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), …
How to Fight Niacin Flush with Apple Pectin
New research suggests that cholesterol may not be the single most important factor leading to heart disease. Nonetheless, it is still relevant in many situations, and doctors will still focus on impro…
Will Higher Bad LDL Cholesterol Help Older Peopl…
A new analysis of prior research suggests that higher levels of so-called bad LDL cholesterol is associated with longer life for older people. Not surprisingly, many cardiologists are outraged over th…
Should the “Salt Is Safe” Heretics B…
Modern medicine likes to think of itself as scientific, driven by data. But when new evidence disputes old dogma public health leaders might wish for the old days when dissenters were dealt with harsh…
Should You Shun Saturated Fat to Prevent A Heart…
Do you worry about your cholesterol levels? Have you followed the nutrition advice of the American Heart Association to ban butter, embrace margarine, avoid eggs and use vegetable oil as your cooking …
How to Improve Your Cholesterol with Cocoa
One of our favorite topics is the activity of cocoa flavanols and how they can benefit our health. One reader reported on a personal experiment using cocoa flavanols. Will they improve your cholestero…
How Bad is Bad Cholesterol for Your Heart?
Is cholesterol the chief culprit behind heart disease? For decades Americans have been told that to lower their risk of a heart attack they had to lower their cholesterol levels, especially LDL choles…
How to Improve Cholesterol by Skipping Dairy
Many people worry that if their cholesterol gets too high, their doctors will insist that they need a statin to lower it. As a result, they search for alternative ways to lower cholesterol. One reader…
Billion Dollar Drugs Are Dramatically Disappoint…
How effective is your medicine? This seemingly simple question is surprisingly complex. In many cases a pill's benefits are barely detectable. Before a drug can be approved by the Food and Drug Admini…
Another Downside of Statins
When statin drugs were originally introduced in the late 1980s, most doctors thought they had few if any side effects. To this day, some researchers contend that the vast majority of problems that peo…
Red Wine and Exercise Can Elevate HDL Cholestero…
One natural approach to raising helpful HDL cholesterol is to drink a glass of red wine with dinner. Health care providers have been reluctant to recommend this approach, however, for fear of encourag…
Are You Afraid of Saturated Fat? Studies Say Not…
How many studies will it take before doctors and nutrition experts change their minds about saturated fat? For the last 50 years, Americans have been told that eating sat fat was the quickest way to h…
Oatmeal with Cinnamon Helps Control Cholesterol …
Many people would like to know how they can lower their cholesterol without medication. Sometimes a surprisingly simple strategy can be helpful. When the doctor mentions "diet and exercise," she may n…
Home Tests for High Cholesterol or High Blood Su…
Trying to second-guess your doctor is not necessarily a good idea. Still, if you want to follow your health more closely than occasional doctor visits allow, you may want to know about reliable tests …
Almonds to Lower Cholesterol and Blood Sugar
We love it when our listeners tell us about simple, easy ways to achieve health goals. That's why we were pleased to learn about almonds to lower cholesterol and blood sugar. We were even more delight…
Who Needs Treatment for High Cholesterol?
Questions about treating high cholesterol have been confusing for quite a long time. Recent changes in the guidelines have not cleared away the confusion since some doctors have not embraced the new r…
Does Dark Chocolate Provide Healthful Cocoa Flav…
Whenever a new study comes along to demonstrate that yes, chocolate does have health benefits (see the most recent one here), nutrition experts step forward to caution people not to start gobbling cho…
New LDL Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Recommended f…
Biotech Medicines Drop LDL More Than Statins: A completely new category of LDL cholesterol-lowering drugs has just received a vote of confidence from an FDA panel of experts. The advisory committee vo…
Does Artificial Sweetener Lower HDL Cholesterol?
Sometimes small changes in our health routines can have a big impact in our biochemistry and metabolism. An alert doctor thought that artificial sweeteners might be responsible for lower HDL cholester…
Natural Approaches to Lowering Cholesterol Are P…
Q. I wanted to add my two cents to the advice you gave to a person who wanted to lower his cholesterol naturally. I have had tremendous success using a natural substance derived from red rice yeast.…