The benefits of healthy older people taking statins to prevent heart disease and stroke needs to be balanced with the risk of side effects.
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An Australian trial will give us a clearer picture of whether healthy old people benefit from taking statins to prevent heart disease and stroke.
A controversial editorial has questioned whether saturated fats really clog up your arteries and put you at risk of heart disease. But can it really overturn decades of research?
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We need to eat a healthy diet, do some exercise and avoid stress rather than blame saturated fat for heart disease, says a recent editorial. But does the evidence stack up?
A study claims that getting 15% of your calorie intake from walnuts can help lower LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol – an expert takes a closer look at the results.
Lipitor is widely prescribed for cholesterol, but incorrect negative reports have seen its use decline slightly in Australia.
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Lipitor was approved by the government in 1997, and while under patent protection it was the highest-selling drug of all time with worldwide sales of more than US$12 billion a year.
Trans fats increase the shelf life of bakery goods and fast foods.
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When you buy commercially baked goods such as pies, pastries, cakes and biscuits, there’s a good likelihood they’ll contain one of the nastier types of fatty acids: trans fats.
Half a million fewer statins were dispensed to patients in the eight months following the Catalyst broadcasts.
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What we know about statins comes almost entirely from commercial interests. So what we take for knowledge about their harms and benefits is actually information designed to optimise the drug makers’ responsibility…
Nearly 13m more adults in the US will be eligible for statins after new guidelines widened the criteria for use of the drugs to treat high cholesterol and prevent heart attacks and strokes. Using data…
A US heart researcher looks set to inflame an argument over saturated fats. It has long been a health mantra that too much saturated fat like cheese and butter contributes to higher cholesterol and an…
A diet high in particular saturated fatty acids can increase your body’s cholesterol production.
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Dietary guidelines cite the fact that saturated fats can increase LDL cholesterol, which is also known as bad cholesterol because it’s a major risk factor for heart disease. Others claim saturated fats…
The long-term decline in butter sales has reversed in recent years despite the continued promotion of margarine as a healthy spread.
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Margarine has been the chameleon of manufactured food products, able to transform its nutritional appearance, adapt to changing nutritional fads, and charm unwitting nutrition experts and nutrition-conscious…
Butter gets points for taste; margarine for being easy to spread. But the healthiest option is not strictly called butter or margarine – it’s a “spread”. To improve the health of your heart, choose a spread…
On the past two Thursdays, the ABC’s Catalyst program set off a chain reaction of protest from sections of the medical community, aghast that the non-medical media would question the accepted wisdom that…