The Medical Mainstream finally figured out how to prevent heart disease

A banner year

Mark your calendars. 2013. This is the year the Medical Mainstream finally figured out how to prevent heart disease.

Even more remarkable: This prevention comes with zero side effects.

But don’t expect jubilation. They’ve got the solution, but they don’t know how to turn it into a drug.

A mirage in the medical desert

The hiding-in-plain-sight “secret” to heart disease prevention is revealed in a recent Wall St. Journal article. But don’t go looking for a “Heart Disease Breakthrough!” headline. The article really isn’t about heart disease at all.

It’s about a fool’s errand.

In a Holy Grail quest to replace Lipitor with another stupendous blockbuster drug, Big Pharma scientists have focused on HDL. Of course, HDL is the “good” cholesterol because supposedly it undoes the work of LDL, the “bad” cholesterol.

I say “supposedly” because the promise of HDL is a mirage.

Big Pharma has been hard at work developing HDL-boosting drugs. And they work. They drive up HDL levels. But clinical trials show this has no effect in preventing heart attacks or heart disease.

If you imagine drug makers are pulling their hair, you’re right. Research clearly links high HDL levels to healthy hearts. But when drugs successfully raise HDL… there’s no effect. It’s like they’ve been duped!

In the WSJ article, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist figures it out… “But maybe it was the exercise that did it, or the not smoking that did it.”

Bingo! Right on the money! It’s not the high HDL itself that’s good for your heart. It’s the heart-healthy things YOU DO that just happen to also push up the HDL.

Imagine that!

Another cardiologist tells WSJ that we should “pay at least as much attention to nutrition as we do [to] drugs.”

Wow. Now there’s an Old School concept! Nutrition might play a role in heart health? Who knew!?

But look what these two guys stumbled upon… It’s the golden door to heart health.

* Don’t smoke

* Exercise

* Eat a proper diet

I would say, “You can take that to the bank,” but that’s just it — you can’t. It’s invaluable. You cannot turn it into a pill that will do those things for you.

Of course, that won’t keep Big Pharma from business as usual.

Dr. Roger Newton is the chief science officer of Esperion, a drug development company. Their claim to fame is that they first synthesized the active ingredient in Lipitor.

These days, Esperion is working on an HDL-boosting drug. But Dr. Newton told WSJ something startling. At first, I could hardly believe what I was reading. He said that his company is now focusing “most of our energies and finances” on a new LDL-lowering medicine.

Amazing. It’s the world’s most advanced medical establishment in complete denial.

Sources:
“New Rules for Giving Good Cholesterol a Boost” Christopher Weaver, The Wall St. Journal, 1/7/13, online.wsj.com