Get Over It: Muscle Pain with Statins

A study published in the American Heart Journal from researchers at a preventive cardiology clinic at Cleveland Clinic found that 87.2% of people who could not take statins because of muscle pain could tolerate daily, or every other day day dosing if they tried again (usually with a different statin.)

Even people who had to take the drug every other day had much better LDL levels than those who had to stop taking a statin all together.  

"There was a trend toward a decrease in all-cause mortality at 8 years for patients on daily and intermittent statin dosing compared with those who discontinued statin. "

>>> Read abstract here

Live Longer after a Heart Attack with a Healthy Diet

Reported online in JAMA Internal Medicine [from Medpage]:

Healthy eaters were 24% less likely to die after a heart attack, according to Shanshan Li, MD, MSc, ScD of Harvard School of Public Health.  Also of note, people who improved their diet the most after a heart attack had a 40% less chance of dying of another heart attack.

A healthy diet was defined as one rich in the following foods:

• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Nuts and legumes
• Whole grains
• Omega 3 fats (Wild Salmon)

People need to also remember that avoiding certain foods and habits is also important:

• Minimal Red and processed meats
• Minimal Sugar-sweetened drinks
• Minimal Alcohol
• Very low amounts of trans fat
• Low Sodium intake

>>>  Read the article

Athletes Live Longer

From HeartWire (theheart.org):  "Elite French cyclists participating in the Tour de France over the past 60 years have a significantly lower rate of mortality than French men in the general population, according to the results of a new study [1]...


While physicians must address the needs of their patients, including those with coronary artery disease and those who might be at risk for sudden cardiac death, the overall message for the general population is that the lifelong benefits of exercise, including high-intensity endurance sports, outweigh any potential risks when it comes to all-cause mortality, said Jouven [Dr Xavier Jouven (Paris Descartes University, France)]."

>>> Link to article