Diagnosis of high cholesterol improves survival rate

wallycat

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/311550.ph...

ksusan

Interesting, but very poorly written. If I see a better write-up I'll post a link.

wallycat

I think it is basically reiterating that statins help. Most people with high cholesterol get put on statins.

ksusan

Thanks. I understood that, but it's written confusingly.

wallycat

Agreed. Plus, I often wonder if they are jumping to the right conclusions. Maybe statins ONLY benefit people with high cholesterol rather than the statin being a panacea.....and maybe people with higher cholesterol, even without the meds, fare better....

Lily55

maybe its the high cholesterol that helps rather than the statins? We need enough cholesterol for cell health and EFAs for flexible cell walls

ChiSandy

I think the article is premature--and not exactly accurate. Is it the cholesterol or the statins? Contrary to what the article suggests, not everyone with “high cholesterol” gets a statin--high HDL, which is beneficial, can elevate a total serum cholesterol reading, the dangerousness of LDL depends on particle size (larger is better), HDL-to-LDL) ratios are more predictive, and statins can cause more problems than they solve. (Say, nudging metabolic syndrome clear into Type 2 diabetes territory, muscle wasting, pain, etc.). And before statins became all the rage, there were still findings that patients with the lowest total cholesterol had the highest mortality-from-non-cardiovascular-causes rates. Could be that there are as yet undiscovered genes common to both high total cholesterol and lower rates of those four cancers. And what of other studies suggesting that TN tumors may be cholesterol-and-dietary-fat-dependent, or that ER+ tumors, if starved of estrogen long enough, start synthesizing it from serum cholesterol?

I wouldn’t trust statistics or epidemiological data. Show me the hard science on the biochemical level.

cp418

This article is too general, however, there has been much research pointing to links of breast cancer to elevated HDL. Here is an older article from 1993 - it was already identified back then and the publications continue to present.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8282454

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/7/6/483.abstr...

------------------------------------- more recent

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20131010/High-lev...

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/37/12/319...

edited to add - my elderly mother and uncle have low HDL levels between 30 - 40 range and are in their late 80's. I always had high HDL levels at times over 100 - I was dx with breast cancer age 49 with low BMI.

wallycat

Interesting info (new to me on the HDL)...I have always had higher HDL (80s).

cp418

Me too with high HDL. I actually reduced my Omega 3 supplements to get my HDL under 100. Cardiologist is so pleased with high HDL and has no idea why I am concerned...... What is good in one circumstance may not be in another.

http://www.blockmd.com/blog/breast-cancer-and-chol...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC426814...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC416749...

Does good cholesterol increase breast cancer risk?

Date:

October 9, 2013

Source:

Thomas Jefferson University

Summary:

A team of researchers has shown that an HDL receptor found on breast cancer cells may be responsible for making this cancer more aggressive, proposing a new molecular target that could help treat the disease.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/1310...

Eliminating the 'good cholesterol' receptor may fight breast cancer

Date:

April 3, 2012

Source:

Thomas Jefferson University

Summary:

A new study suggests SR-BI plays a role in breast cancer tumor growth.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/1204...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/1203...

solfeo

Didn't we recently see an article that said something to the effect that breast cancer cells were evading treatment drugs by hiding in cholesterol? Sorry can't remember all the details.