For many years it has been thought that having high levels of the "bad" LDL cholesterols dangerous, and many doctors prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs called statins. These statins usually cause a drop in LDL levels, but often it is not significant to get below the healthy target set for LDL. Now the US NAtional Heart, Lung and Blood institute will be changing these guidelines, partially because of the debate about cholestrol targets, which haven't been tested directly before. Earlier studies have shown that using statins reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, but when LDL is lowered by other medications the risk of heart attack and stroke don't go down as much. This shows that there may be some other element of statins that reduce the risk of heart attack, but it is not necessarily the LDL level that affects it.
Many doctors agree with the idea of changing the guidelines. Jay Cohn, a cardiologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, says that “If your arteries and heart are healthy, I don’t care what your LDL or blood pressure is." a person can be healthy without meeting every guideline set. However, some people don't think that LDL targets should be changed because targets provide a message that get people to think about their health.
Nature of Science Themes
Science is collaborative: a panel of 15 cardiologists will come up with the new guidelines.
Conflicts within the scientific community: some people don't think it is a good idea to change the guidelines.
Role of chance: The panel will use data from randomized clinical trials to make sure they get the best results.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=doubts-emerge-cholesterol-level-target
Nature of Science Themes
Science is collaborative: a panel of 15 cardiologists will come up with the new guidelines.
Conflicts within the scientific community: some people don't think it is a good idea to change the guidelines.
Role of chance: The panel will use data from randomized clinical trials to make sure they get the best results.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=doubts-emerge-cholesterol-level-target
I think this article is interesting in that it demonstrates how science changes over time as we develop new things. It's also a little scary because it is so commonly known that "bad" cholesterol is so bad for you, and now it seems like this is changing. It makes you wonder what other things we consider "common knowledge" will also be disproven over time. Anyway, of course it's good that we are learning how to be more healthy.
ReplyDeleteThis subject seems like it could help people that are at risk of heart attack. If the data does support the hypothesis in the end it could help people know what they need to improve on, rather than just reducing cholesterol and still having a heart attack. Also going off of Karena's comment having a healthy heart is important and now that we know that cholesterol could not be a contributing factor to heart attacks doctors can focus on what is causing them and how to make the heart more healthy.
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ReplyDeleteI found this article to be quite interesting.Recently our neighbor got a heart attack. When we talked to her, she mentioned the doctor telling her it was because of the high amount of "bad" cholesterol in her system. I researched this a little more and found an article that states that a high level of LDL cholesterol is bad. The artlicle describes in depth why LDL is considered to be a bad cholesterol and how it affects the human body.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/ldl-cholesterol-the-bad-cholesterol
I now find it very suprising that LDL is actaully not so harmful. Although I still slightly believe that LDL can be an issue, I also feel that the doctors tests are very logical.