This morning, drug researchers and cardiologists were again shocked by a big “everything you thought you knew is wrong” moment.
This is the second time that niacin, long a mainstay of therapy, has failed to benefit patients in a large clinical trial. A study funded by the National Institutes of Health, called AIM-HIGH, also failed to show a benefit for Niaspan. Cardiologists say the result is likely to mean that the use of niacin will plummet.For the record there is no evidence that the cholesterol reducing effects of statins are what make them efficacious. They also drastically reduce the incidence of common infections. Infections proven to cause atherosclerosis and heart disease.
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Randy Thomas a preventative cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., says: “I don’t think there will be much of a future for niacin.” He is disenchanted with many cholesterol-lowering drugs. The big exception, he says, are statin medications like Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, and Pravachol, most of which are now cheap and generic and have been shown to reduce heart attacks and deaths in big studies, and which are among the most commonly prescribed medicines.There is no doubt that these medicines have a big benefit for heart patients.
“As we delve into the statin therapy there are probably multiple reasons that the statins are so beneficial and lowering [cholesterol] may be just one of the reasons for benefits from statins. Anti-inflammatory effects may be another factor.”
