Cholesterol Drugs Increase Risk of Diabetes; Diabetes Drugs Increase Risk of Heart Attacks

In the age of medical specialists,  we can find ourselves being treated as a collection of conditions.   Our whole health can get lost.   You may find yourselves taking a variety of medications,  perhaps one for cholesterol,  another for high blood pressure and yet another to regulate blood glucose levels. These medications each may be appropriate,  but they also may works against each other.
Two studies regarding cholesterol lowering medications and a diabetes drugs are cases in point.

Lipitor, Crestor and other statin medications taken to lower cholesterol also increase the risk of diabetes,  by about a 9 percent, according to a study that quantified a complication that doctors only recently discovered.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people taking Avandia, a diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The statin study analyzed 13 studies undetaken after a 2008 trial from London-based AstraZeneca unexpectedly found patients given its drug Crestor had a 25 percent higher risk of diabetes. The new analysis involving more than 90,000 patients, published in the journal Lancet, shows the actual increase in diabetes is 9 percent, the risk is tied to the entire class of medications and the danger increases with age. As a class,  statins are the leading class of drugs sold in the world today,  with annual sales exceeding $35 billion.

Avandia, the diabetes medication,   was once one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Driven in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, sales were $3.2 billion in 2006. But a 2007 study by a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist suggesting that the drug harmed the heart prompted the F.D.A. to issue a warning, and sales plunged. A committee of independent experts found in 2007 that Avandia might increase the risk of heart attack but recommended that it remain on the market, and an F.D.A. oversight board voted 8 to 7 to accept that advice.

Yes, medications may be approrpriate based on overall risk factors,  but they also are powerful chemicals that can negatively effect on our whole health.  A solution optimizing the power of nutrition to significantly improve whole health and prevent heart disease can be used in many cases --- either to avoid the intake of medications or significantly reduce the dosages required to achieve target health result. kardea nutrition - heart healthy and inspired - defining statin alternatives. kardea gourmet - great science, fantastic foods and cardiovascular health.

Kardea Nutrition Pledges 10% of Online Sales to Women's Heart Health Campaign

February 5, 2010. Leading up to the heartiest of holidays (Valentine's 2010),   Kardea Nutrition is pledging 10% of sales made through its online store to The American Heart Association Go Red & Give campaign.

Go Red for Women celebrates the energy, passion and power women have by banding together to wipe out heart disease and stroke. Go Red is working hard to change the perception that heart disease is a "man's disease." And it's working! By teaching more and more women how to talk to their doctors about heart disease, Go Red can save thousands of lives every year. The good news is that heart disease is often preventable!

Go-Red-For Women Campaign: American Hearat Association Feb 5-12

Tomorrow is National Wear Red Day. Thousands of Americans will be wearing red to draw attention to this startling fact: Over 430,000 women are silenced each year by cardiovascular disease – and most of these deaths are preventable.

Kardea encourages you to wear something red tomorrow to honor those women – and that you’ll help fund the research and programs that can save them. Today, the American Heart Associataion is launching a Go Red & Give campaign. One week, one goal: $100,000 to keep our sisters, mothers, daughters and wives safe.

Donate directly to the American Heart Association to support education, outreach and research programs to help save women’s lives.

Your donation could help keep someone you love safe from the #1 killer disease in the U.S.