Study: Statin Drugs Accelerate Hardening of Arteries

New Study Finds Statin Drugs Accelerate Hardening of Arteries (Live In The Now, Aug 27, 2012):

The pharmaceutical industry claims the cardiovascular benefits of statins outweigh their many troubling side effects, as well as their risk of causing type 2 diabetes. A new study that shows these drugs accelerate arterial calcification appears to refute this claim, leaving Big Pharma without a leg to stand on.

Findings are a blow to Big Pharma’s claims.

In the research published in Diabetes Care, scientists examining patients with type 2 diabetes and severe atherosclerosis discovered that coronary artery calcification was decidedly greater in more frequent statin users compared to those who were less frequent users. Even more disturbing, in a subgroup of participants who initially did not take statins, advancement of coronary artery calcification (CAC) and aortic artery calcification (AAC) was decidedly greater in those who used statins frequently.

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Lifestyle Changes Boost Enzyme Regulating Cell Aging

TUESDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) — Major lifestyle changes can help improve levels of an enzyme called telomerase that controls cell aging, say California researchers.

Telomerase repairs and lengthens telomeres, which are DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes that directly affect how quickly cells age. As telomeres become shorter and their structural integrity weakens, cells age and die more quickly, according to background information in a University of California, Irvine, new release. Shortening of telomeres is emerging as a marker of disease risk and premature death in many types of cancer, including prostate, lung, breast and colorectal cancers.

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