Good Over Bad! Natural Cholestrol Lowering

Late last year an interesting study showed time-release niacin to be superior to reducing cholestrol compared to the once very popular cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia by Merck & Co. Inc. The mainstream press did not bother with this news!
Dr. Anthony DeMaria, a leading cardiologist and also editor in chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology referred  to the results of a study that compared time-release niacin (a form of vitamin B) to Zetia in high-risk cholestrol patients. The niacin used was a prescription product rather than the kind sold in health foof stores that had a special timed-release formulation, which may cut down on the hot surges that are associated with high doses of niacin use.
Zetia, known generically as ezetimibe, is supposedly highly effective at reducing LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. But niacin boosts HDL, or good cholesterol and changes the ratios of good to bad. In the study reported at the American Heart Association meeting and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, good trumped bad.

Zetia reduced LDL by almost 20 percent in patients who already had lowered their LDL cholesterol levels  to less than 100 mg/dL. But patients taking this drug had a slight worsening of the plaque build-up. Niacin, however, had a beneficial effect on plaque buildup in the artery walls. Moreover, nine high risk patients in the Zetia part of the trial had heart attacks, stroke, or died from heart disease, versus just two patients taking niacin. "Niacin had a superior effect on the artery wall," said Dr. Allan Taylor, a cardiologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who headed the study. "The take-home message is clear: niacin should be the choice when considering an add-on therapy."

Dr. Taylor pressed the point that at a time when we are all watching the bottom line on healthcare costs, it's time to switch to niacin -- which even in the medically branded formulation (Niaspan), is cheaper than Zetia. Noting that in 2008, four times as many North Americans were taking Zetia versus niacin, Dr. Taylor said that switching would reap big potential savings as well as obviously better outcomes. The trial was small - 208 patients over 14-months and then the study was terminated because "the clinical question was answered and having answered it, the trial lost clinical equipoise."

YES!

(Editor's note: We have known for decades that niacin has MANY benfits and this article is evidence of one of these. Maintaining proper B vitamin levels is more than smart - it's essential. So eat lots of foods rich in niacin such as wild rice, brown rice,
buckwheat and sunflower seeds and so forth. If you think you need a boost back to healthy levels then a quality supplementation is wise. If, much like the folks in the study mentioned in this article, you need a specific type and therapeutic doses, monitoring and so forth, then you'll need your GP to understand exactly what type to perscribe and how much. You may want to do your homework for your GP!  Take control of your own health. Good luck.

The original article is by Peggy Beck at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartDiseaseNews/cheap-niacin-beats-pricier-zetia-heart-patients/story?id=9092855&page=1