Significantly greater risk factor
That is inflammation.
American research shows that people who take cholesterol-lowering statins have a significantly higher risk of heart attacks and strokes due to inflammation than people with high cholesterol.
“It goes without saying that if we don’t address the body’s inflammatory response, we will never beat these diseases. It’s no longer a hypothesis, but a proven fact,” says Paul Ridker, a cardiovascular epidemiologist and biomedical scientist and one of the researchers behind the study, which was published in The Lancet.
C-reactive protein betrays inflammation
The researchers specifically analyzed the results of three large studies testing different treatments for heart attacks and strokes in a total of 31,245 patients, all of whom were already taking cholesterol-lowering statins.
At the start of the studies, all participants’ blood was tested for cholesterol and a natural substance called C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation in the body. All three studies found that elevated CRP levels conferred a significantly greater risk of fatal cardiovascular disease than cholesterol.
268 percent more deadly
Among the patients with the highest CRP levels, 268 percent more people died of cardiovascular disease than among the patients with the lowest CRP levels. In comparison, high cholesterol caused only 27 percent more deaths. An elevated CRP means an elevated inflammatory value, so the inflammatory processes are likely the problem.
It turns out that there is a lot of activity of inflammation and immune cells in plaques in the arteries. Animal experiments have even shown that atherosclerotic plaques with high levels of inflammation are more likely to disintegrate and release deadly clots into the bloodstream, so anti-inflammatory strategies are of great importance.
Protect nutrients
Doctors have long believed that cholesterol is not dangerous unless it is oxidized by free oxygen radicals and an inflammatory response is initiated. Studies have shown that some nutrients even have an anti-inflammatory effect. These include omega-3 fatty acids from fish, but also vitamin C, vitamin D, selenium and zinc.
One of the most convincing studies was carried out by researchers from Linköping Universitetshospital and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. By giving the elderly a combination of selenium and coenzyme Q10 for four years, they succeeded in reducing the death rate from cardiovascular disease by 54 percent. The researchers noted that the treatment the CRP levels in the blood and other inflammatory markers, such as osteopontin, sP-selectin and IgF-1.
