Doctors wary after cholesterol drug flop

Still think they will find a drug to "cure" your overweight/obesity?

"Full results of a failed trial on Vytorin, a medicine taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, left doctors stunned that the drug did not improve heart disease even though it worked as intended to lower three key risk factors.

Use of Vytorin and a related drug, Zetia, seemed sure to continue to fall after the findings reported Sunday and fresh questions about why drugmakers took nearly two years after the study ended to give results.

'A lot of us thought that there would be some glimmer of benefit,' said Dr. Roger Blumenthal, a Johns Hopkins University cardiologist and spokesman for the American Heart Association."

And these expensive drugs and their side effects for merely "some glimmer of benefit."

As if they care about you.

Not.

"Many doctors were prescribing Vytorin without trying older, proven medications first, as guidelines advise. The key message from the study is "don't do that," Blumenthal said.

Doctors have long focused on lowering LDL or bad cholesterol as a way to prevent heart disease. Statins like Merck & Co.'s Zocor, which recently became available in generic form, do this, as do niacin, fibrates and other medicines.

Vytorin, which came out in 2004, combines Zocor with Schering-Plough Corp.'s Zetia, which came on the market in 2002 and attacks cholesterol in a different way.

The study tested whether Vytorin was better than Zocor alone at limiting plaque buildup in the arteries of 720 people with super high cholesterol because of a gene disorder.

The results show the drug had 'no result — zilch. In no subgroup, in no segment, was there any added benefit' in terms of reducing plaque, said Dr. John Kastelein, the Dutch scientist who led the study.

That happened even though Vytorin dramatically lowered LDL, other fats in the blood called triglycerides and a measure of artery inflammation called CRP."

I repeat.

You have to be a friggin' moron to trust this crap and the entire sick care industry when it comes to overweight/obesity.

Ditto for the media, Oprah, Oprah, Oprah, diet gurus, diet gurus, diet docs, Oprah diet docs and other IMHO crooks, cons, thieves, child abusers and liars.

To see stuff that works, go here.

And last for now, but not least, did you notice the CRP thing above?

CRP is associated with inflammation and reducing it plus other things associated with cardiovascular disease had zilch effect.

Think twice before you pursue IMHO dangerously deceptive diets, like Barry Sears's Zone Diet, where anti-inflammation eating is claimed.