The cholesterol drug Lipitor lost its patent today.  The generic Lipitor will be much cheaper. But does that make it a good deal to you?  Some side-effects are life-threatening.  Why not make a life-style change instead?

LIPITOR USERS are in a celebratory mood, because today Lipitor lost its patent.  Yes, the Lipitor patent – the legal imprimatur enabling Pfizer, Lipitor’s manufacture, a monopoly on the drug – has expired, which means that generic Lipitor can now be made by any drug company that can duplicate it and get FDA approval.

Pfizer may claim, but cannot back up, that the Lipitor it manufactures is superior to generic Lipitor.  But au contrare – molecule for molecule – the generic stuff will be identical, and thus will work the same, including offering all those nasty side-effects.

To the Lipitor-uninitiated, know that Lipitor is a “statin” mostly associated with cholesterol, but is also used to treat people with a high risk of stroke, heart attack, or other heart complications, as well as people with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

So, the good news about Lipitor losing its patent is that the market opens up to Lipitor generic competitors.  Yes, the price will be going down. Now, it’s about $5.00 per pill.  Soon, the price of a Lipitor generic drug, as estimated by a Harvard doctor I just heard on the PBS Newshour, will be $2.50 per pill. As others join the fray and manufacturing capacity increases, the price will decline further.

(Don’t fret for Pfizer, as they’ve been actively putting together a cabal of various entities, such as pharmacies, doctors, benefit manager and patents to maintain its market share by offering various incentives, such as Lipitor Coupons.  More on that here.)

For those using Lipitor for all those ailments written above, paying less is a good thing.  Happy people.  However, I contend that many Lipitor users would be better off if, rather than now having a price incentive to use more, or beginning to use it, they made healthier life-style changes instead.

Consider the Side-Effects

Like most pharmaceutical drugs, Lipitor comes with a long list of side-effects, a partial list which includes:

Myalgias, arthritis/ arthralgias, diarrhea, headache, rashes, elevation of liver transaminases, elevation of creatine kinase a muscle enzyme, various gastrointestinal symptoms including flatulence, dyspepsia, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, and various infection symptoms.

If the above list of Lipitor side-effects are insufficient to give you pause, here are some that are life-threatening:

Rhabdomyolysi,  Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, photosensitivity, vasculitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, angioedema, anaphylaxis.  (Source for Lipitor side-effects.)

Read again the list of health conditions that Lipitor is made to ameliorate.  Notice a common denominator among them?

Well, they’re all chronic, debilitating conditions that in many, many cases can be vastly improved through life-style changes.  And yet, so many people are unwilling to change behavior that they cumulatively will spend this year in the U.S.A. over $289 billion (the 2006 number) for drugs that attempt to fix their health problems, many of which can be improved by adopting healthy life-style changes.

This might be understandable if the drugs that improved chronic, debilitating health conditions were safe, but as noted above, they’re not… people die or get ill from the side-effects, and also become dependent on the drugs.

Rather Not Do Drugs?

UPDATE:  Check out Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs.

If you’re on Lipitor or some other pharmaceutical drug for a health condition that can be improved via a life-style change, check out some the information below and ask your doctor if your situation could be made better by doing something other than popping drugs.

Food is medicine, as you might have heard, and so start out by learning about superfoods and healthy diets.  On this blog, read My Approach to Health, and from there read Diet 101 and/or Dr. Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Plan.

For more information about cholesterol, check out: 12 Myths About Cholesterol. Interested in lowering your cholesterol the natural way? For information and inspiration, check out one man’s pursuit of healthy cholesterol numbers. Red Yeast is sometimes prescribed by doctors to help lower mildly increased cholesterol – check it out here.

If your issue involves the heart, read Dr. Oz’s Life Saving Heart Tips, and be aware of supplements to aide cardiovascular health.

Finally, medical types are connecting the dots between pernicious, chronic diseases and are finding that obesity is one main culprit – or “common denominator”, to use a phrase elsewhere in this missive.  So, here’s a fairly new term they devised – Diabestity.  It equals obesity + diabetes.

Yes, combine obesity and diabetes and you get “Diabesity”, which the ever-insightful Dr. Mark Hyman discusses in this post, The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming To You.  It’s about how to know if you’re at risk, or have diabesity, and what to do about it if you do.

Good reading to all!

Related posts:

1. High Cholesterol? Do Something!
2. 12 Myths About Cholesterol
3. Sally Fields and the Wonders of Boniva

Rather than food marketed as low-calorie snack food, try these five foods that will help get you thin.  They help get and keep you full, either with protein or fiber, or both.

I’D LIKE to turn you on to an article by Livestrong.com about five foods that can help get you thin.

The basic idea is rather than trying to dole at portions of one diet, low calorie food or another, eat these five foods to your heart’s content.

Well, maybe not quite, as one of these five foods – almonds – is high in fat so should be eaten in moderation.  And the eggs are high in cholesterol, so know how you fare on that count before wolfing down five eggs per day.  (Read 12 Myths about Cholesterol.)

But with those two provisos, these five foods are great to snack on, or incorporate into your meals.

Add these five thin foods to your diet:

1. Apples.  Healthy, nutritious and full of fiber which helps you feel full and enhances elimination.
2. Almonds.  Crunchy and satisfying, almonds contain protein and fiber, but if you try to replace a meal with almonds, you’ll invariably wind up eating too much fat.  Stick with ten or less for a mid-meal snack.
3. Salmon.  It boosts satiety levels, offers protein and really healthy omega 3 fatty-acids.
4. Eggs.  Research indicates that eating eggs in the morning helps you lose weight as compared to high glycemic carb foods like bagels.  Eggs have the satiety-causing protein helping you feel fuller all day long.
5. Tomatoes.  Along with most non-starch veggies, tomatoes can be eaten with abandon, contain fiber and do a body good.

For more information about all of this, check out the original article.

Bon appetite.

Related posts:

1. The 10 Dirty, Poopy Foods You’re (Certainly) Eating
2. 25 Diet-busting Foods Never to Eat
3. Ten Foods for Longevity

Just heard on TV (so it must be true) that 1/3 of Americans have high cholesterol, so this topic is both timely and important.  Do you know your cholesterol numbers?  Would be a good idea, as well as learning more about cholesterol right here… read on…

[Update: It's a world wide problem.]

[Update 2: Check out one man's pursuit of healthy cholesterol numbers.]

ONE OF my longest, detailed and perhaps boring post is about dietary fat.  I really dug into this topic because people seem to be so confused about the types of fat, and which are “good” or “bad”.

(If you have time to kill, read: Fat is Good…Maybe…Could Be…)

Ever since I wrote that post, I thought I should return to the topic and explain things more simply.  But I don’t have to, because Dr. Rebecca S. Reeves has done it already in her succinct article, Heart Health: 12 Myths About Cholesterol, which I summarize below.

“What does cholesterol have to do with fat”, you may ask?  “And why should I care”? Well, let’s first define cholesterol… from my “Fat” article, I quote:

“Cholesterol, is one of a class of complex lipids called “sterols“, and comes in two forms: the “bad” form associated with low density lipoproteins (“LDL”), and the “good” form associated with high density lipoproteins (“HDL”).”

Clear as mud, right?

Well, again from my “Fat” article, another attempt:

“Bad fats are saturated fat and trans fat.

Fats containing saturated fatty acids are called Saturated Fats. Examples of foods high in saturated fats include lard, butter, whole milk, cream, eggs, red meat, chocolate, and solid shortenings. Excess intake of saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol and increase the risk of developing coronary artery disease.”

“Trans Fats are found in vegetable shortenings and in some margarines, crackers, cookies, and snack foods, and will increase the shelf life of oils. But trans fats will not extend your shelf life; rather, just the opposite – consumption of trans fatty acids increases blood LDL-cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) levels and raises the risk of coronary heart disease.  A nice recipe for a short life.”

(More on all that here.)

OK, needed to connect the dots between cholesterol and fat before turning to Dr. Reeves’ article where she sometimes uses the two terms interchangeably.

The 12 Myths About Cholesterol

1. Healthy diets eliminate the most fat.  Not necessarily – you need fat in your diet, at least 25% of total calories.
2. All fats are equal. No, some are good, some OK, some bad. Good are Monosaturated (olive oil, peanut oil, avocado); and Polyunsaturated (salmon, seeds, nuts, vegetable oils). OK is coconut oil, a saturated fat, yes, but with a different chemistry.  Bad are Saturated (fatty red meats, butter, palm oil); and Trans fat (anything termed “hydrogenated oils”, typically in packaged foods and fast foods, like French fries.
3. Low fat = low calorie. Nope.  When the fat is taken out, often other high calorie stuff is put in, like sugar-type stuff.  Plus you might wind up eating more of the low fat, high sugar food and thus consume more calories.
4. Olive oil has less calories than other oil. All oils have 9 calories per gram.
5. No “trans fat” means the food is healthy. Maybe… what replaced it, saturated fat? Just minimize your consumption of manufactured, packaged food.
6. Plant “sterols” will reduce cholesterol. Yes, if you eat about 100 pounds of the veggies, fruits and grains each day.
7. The food label says, “Contains plant sterols” and this will lower cholesterol. Depends on the amount… you need 0.8 grams of plant sterols per day may reduce your risk of heart disease.  Look for the CoroWise logo on the label.
8. Plant sterols reduces blood cholesterol by dissolving it in the intestines. Plant sterols work by reducing the absorption of cholesterol from your intestines, which in turn reduces the level of LDL (bad) cholesterol in your body. Cholesterol that is not absorbed is eliminated from your body.
9. Plant sterols do not lower cholesterol. Wrong – studies show that plant sterols are effective at lowering LDL cholesterol if you consume between 0.8 and 3 grams per day.
10. No plant sterol is need if you have normal cholesterol levels. May not be needed if your LDL number is good, but whether your cholesterol is high or “normal”, plant sterol will lower LDL.
11. Children and pregnant women should avoid plant sterols. No, there’s no “should” here… consuming plant sterols for them may be unnecessary since children and pregnant women usually do not have high cholesterol, but doing so is not harmful.
12. It’s a good thing to eliminate cholesterol completely from your diet. For most of us, it’s safe to have 300 mg of cholesterol daily, the recommended daily limit.

Well, there you have it.  If you have any thoughts or suggestions or experiences to share on the topic, please go to the Comments section below and weigh in.

Related posts:

1. Eating Fat is Good… Maybe…Could Be… Sometimes
2. Cholesterol Drug “Lipitor” Loses its Patent – A Good Deal for You?
3. High Cholesterol? Do Something!

(It Really Depends… and You Need To Get It Right!)

Fatty Acid Molecule

Certain fats are critical for health. Aim for fat consumption of Omega-3 and Monosatuated Fatty Acids in the range of 20 to 25% of your daily caloric intake; ideally, as little as possible from Saturated and Trans Fat sources.  Read on for specifics.

THERE ARE  few things more confusing to us than fat.  Certainly, when sagging around the waist, this unsightly jiggly is either actively ignored, scorned, or both.

But this post is not about the waistline tire, or inter-muscular fat per se, but about the macronutrient called fat, which along with its two siblings — protein and carbohydrates — is necessary, important and vital to good health.

IF the fat’s the right type.

Before I delve into why, let’s examine just what makes up the fat macronutrient, starting with names.

Here are the terms related to and/or used for “fat”:

polyunsaturated fat
fatty-acids
trans fatty acids
omegas
triglycerides
cholesterol
phospholipids
lipids
saturated fat
monosaturated fat oils

All of these are connected to each other in one way or another.  Without understanding how they’re related, all these terms can be very confusing.  So, let’s demystify things a bit and then apply what we’ve learned to practical action.

First up is terminology.  What we think of as fat is really a “lipid”, whether they be in liquid or solid form.  Lipids are important for cells’ energy storage and structure, and include these compounds:

-     fatty acids

-     triglycerides

-     oils

-     phospholipids

-     cholesterol (a “sterol”)

Next, let’s define these lipids, relate them to each other, and examine which are “good” and “bad” for you and why.

Fatty Acids

Fatty acids are organic acids, particularly those chains of carbon that are not branched. (“Branched” indicates that the series of atoms connected together that make up the fatty acid can resemble a fork in that they divide or separate into two or more branches.)

Fatty acids serve as energy for the muscles, heart, and other organs, as building blocks for cell membranes, and as energy storage for the body. Those fatty acids not used up as energy are primarily converted into triglycerides, but also exist  as components of phospholipids and cellular membranes.

Triglycerides

Triglycerides are fats that contain, in varying proportions, three groups of fatty acids – saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated – plus a molecule of glycerol.

They are the chemical form in which most fat exists within food as well as in the body.  They store energy in the body, and in effect, it is stored triglycerides – aka body fat – that we remove from our bodies when dieting (hopefully).

Oils

Oils are triglycerides with low melting points — liquid at room temperature, contrasting with fats that are solid at room temperature given their higher melting temperature.

• Polyunsatured Fats are fatty acids triglycerides that are room temperature liquid oils, such as corn oil.
• Monosaturated Fats are fatty acid triglycerides that are also room temperature liquid oils but tend to solidify when refrigerated, like olive oil.
• Saturated Fats are fatty acid triglycerides that are typically solid at room temperature, such as tropical (coconut) oils, butter, margarine and animal fat. They are the only fatty acids that raise blood cholesterol levels

Phospholipids

Phospholipids are a variation of triglycerides where one fatty acid is replaced with a phosphate group, and are important for forming the structural basis of cellular membranes.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol, is one of a class of complex lipids called “sterols“, and comes in two forms: the “bad” form associated with low density lipoproteins (“LDL”), and the “good” form associated with high density lipoproteins (“HDL”).

HDL is thought to remove excess cholesterol from the body; whereas LDL is thought to elevate cholesterol in the blood, which can first lead to excess deposits of cholesterol and fat in the arteries, and then to heart disease and/or stroke.

[Sidebar: Take the American Heart Association Cholesterol Quiz]

OK, so for those of you still with me, on to the stuff you really care about…

The Bad Fat

–> Bad fats are saturated fat and trans fat.

Fats containing saturated fatty acids are called Saturated Fats. Examples of foods high in saturated fats include lard, butter, whole milk, cream, eggs, red meat, chocolate, and solid shortenings. Excess intake of saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol and increase the risk of developing coronary artery disease.

Trans Fats are found in vegetable shortenings and in some margarines, crackers, cookies, and snack foods, and will increase the shelf life of oils. But trans fats will not extend your shelf life; rather, just the opposite – consumption of trans fatty acids increases blood LDL-cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) levels and raises the risk of coronary heart disease.  A nice recipe for a short life.

The Good Fat

–> Good fats are polyunsaturated and monosaturated fatty acids

Monosaturated Fatty Acids contain one double bond in their chemical chain. Examples of foods high in monounsaturated fat include avocados, nuts, and olive, peanut and canola oils. Scientists believe that increased consumption of monounsaturated fats (like nuts) is beneficial in lowering LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) and lowering the risk of coronary heart disease, especially if monounsaturated fats are used to substitute for saturated fats and refined sugars.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids contain more than one double bond in their chemical chain. Unlike saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat does not raise cholesterol levels. In fact, like monosaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats lowers levels of the bad cholesterol lipid, LDL. Unlike monosaturated fats, however, polyunsaturated fat is believed to lower the good cholesterol lipid, HDL, as well.

But despite polyunsaturated fatty acids’ propensity to lower the “good” HDL, they are essential to our diet because they include a special family of essential fatty acids which the human body cannot manufacture for itself called omega 3, omega 6 and omega 9 fatty acids. If you have high cholesterol, don’t overindulge with foods containing polyunsaturated fatty acids, but do include them in your diet.

- Omega-3 Fatty Acids are the best of the three “omegas”. Omega-3 fatty acids are a class of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids with the double bond in the third carbon position from the methyl terminal (hence the use of “3″ in their description). Omega-3s are used in the formation of cell walls, making them supple and flexible, and improving circulation and oxygen uptake with proper red blood cell flexibility and function.

Fish, plant, and nut oils are the primary dietary source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel, halibut, sardines, tuna, herring, krill, algae, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil, purslane, perilla seed oil, walnuts, walnut oil, and spinach.

- Omega-6 Fatty Acids are a class of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids with the initial double bond in the sixth carbon position from the methyl group (hence the “6″). Examples of foods rich in omega-6 fatty acids include corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, and cottonseed oil.

- Omega-9 Fatty Acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids with the initial double bond in… you guessed it… in the ninth carbon position. The niners are important, but it’s not essential that you consume them because the human body can manufacture omega-9 fatty acids in limited amounts. These are found in olive oil (extra virgin, cold pressed is best), olives, avocados, almonds, peanuts, sesame oil, pecans, pistachio nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, etc.

The Omega Interplay

There’s a dance between the omegas that’s important to know about — they work together to promote health, but #3 needs to be favored more than #6 and #9.  The balance is important.

Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and most omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. An inappropriate balance of these essential fatty acids contributes to the development of disease while a proper balance helps maintain and even improve health.

A healthy diet should consist of roughly 2 – 4 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. The typical American diet tends to contain 14 – 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, and many researchers believe this imbalance is a significant factor in the rising rate of inflammatory disorders in the United States.

This is one reason that the so called “Mediterranean Diet” gets high marks.  It consists of a healthier balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids than the typical American Diet, so say various studies demonstrating that people who follow the Med are less likely to develop heart disease. It also contains the omega-9 fatty acid group, which have been reported to help lower risks associated with cancer and heart disease.

The Mediterranean diet does not include much meat (meat is high in omega-6 fatty acids) and emphasizes foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, including whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, olive oil, garlic, as well as moderate red wine consumption.

[For more on Diet, read Diet 101 and A Blueprint for Eating Right.]

Fat Proportions

So, at long last we get to the end of this epic journey of Fat.

Do this: aim for fat consumption in the range of 20 to 25% of your daily caloric intake; ideally, as little as possible from saturated and trans fat sources, and as much possible from poly and monounsaturated fat sources.

–> Try to consume primarily Monosaturated Fatty Acids and Omega-3 Fatty Acids.  So that means, nuts, avocado, salmon, mackerel, halibut, sardines, tuna, herring, krill, algae, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil, purslane, perilla seed oil, walnuts, walnut oil, and spinach.  And cold pressed, double virgin olive oil for cooking, and (along with flaxseed oil) for salads.

Here are some guidelines given three Total Daily Calorie counts:

1,800 Calories a Day

• 40 to 70 grams of total fat
• 14 grams or less of saturated fat
• 2 grams or less of trans fat

2,200 Calories a Day

• 49 to 86 grams of total fat
• 17 grams or less of saturated fat
• 3 grams or less of trans fat

2,500 Calories a Day

• 56 to 97 grams of total fat
• 20 grams or less of saturated fat
• 3 grams or less of trans fat.

Types of Fat

(grams per tablespoon of oil which has about 14 grams of total fat)

Related posts:

1. 12 Myths About Cholesterol
2. Dr. Weil and Kevin Rose Talk Health (Video)
3. Eating for a Long Life: WebMD’s 13 Tips

KNOCK WOOD… despite my prodigious egg consumption (if eight per week is such), I don’t have a cholesterol problem.  Sure, the quality of my diet helps, but for some dangerously high cholesterol levels occur irrespective of diet. People with a cholesterol problem need to do something to get to “good” levels.

The quick and common way to reduce cholesterol is to take prescription drugs.  Maybe that’s the best way for you too, but if you have a cholesterol problem, get your doctor’s clearance before considering natural supplements that may support healthy cholesterol levels.

Among them is:

Red Yeast Rice A doctor of a good friend of mine prescribed it, because his cholesterol problem is too slight to warrant pharmaceutical drugs, and Red Yeast Rice is thought to be helpful.  However, some research indicates that this supplement is no longer made with more than trace amounts of cholesterol lowering substances due to FDA intervention, which you can read about here.

WebMD has a good and quick review of supplements that may or may not help with cholesterol.  Read the review here.

Go here for a list of Product Categories on this site.

Supplement Disclaimer

Just as with the descriptive statements made at the various company sites that manufacture and/or sell the supplement products presented in this blog, none, or nearly none, of the potential benefits stated here have been evaluated by the FDA. Likewise none, or nearly none, of the products here can be represented to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Before engaging a supplement program, it always makes sense to get the advice of your health practitioner.

Related posts:

1. Cholesterol Drug “Lipitor” Loses its Patent – A Good Deal for You?
2. 12 Myths About Cholesterol
3. Allergies: Are There Simple Solutions?