Comments on: Say What? Zetia Can Fight Heart Disease

By: Natural LDL Reduction

Natural LDL Reduction — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:14:52 +0000

Quite an interesting study, indeed. Hope the end results will be great. Thanks for sharing.

By: legalized online gambling

legalized online gambling — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:47:02 +0000

Thanks for sharing your experiences regarding this trial.I really appreciate the efforts you have made for this article.Zetia is taken orally in conjunction with a statin drug and aids in lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in the blood. It specifically acts at level of the brush border of the small intestine by preventing the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream.but it should be avoided if You have liver disease,you have demonstrated a previous allergy to ezetimibe and you are nursing or are pregnant.ZETIA works in the digestive tract, as do some other cholesterol-lowering medicines.

By: Joseph Putnoki

Joseph Putnoki — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:02:31 +0000

Total cholesterol lovering and separate LDL components I miss in the report. Has any study done to determine conclusively which part of the statin’s effect could be responsible for plaque regression? Statins certainly lower cholesterol and I read some claim stating: “the lower the better as less cholesterol will be available to be oxidized”. How came people die of heart disease and stroke with perfect (arbitrary) cholesterol levels? Lately statin’s anti-inflammatory effects recognized (on par with aspirin though) and CRP inflammatory marker to be tested for is recommended, I daresay only oxidized cholesterol becomes part of plaques and reducing sub clinical inflammation certainly slow progression and at some point may allow regression. There are natural alternatives i.e. antioxidants and anti-inflammatories that outperform statins and with no dangerous side effects. Big Pharma is not interested in health so won’t sponsor a trial to determine the above. We need to find some private benefactors who would step up to the plate and finance such trials. Statins are aggressively being promoted and nowadays recklessly so for anything they can think of since not only the public but doctors and cardiologists are ignorant and lead by the nose, they accept what they are told on faith! I sense the days of statins are numbered, hence the pull out all stops to promote the lie.

By: Doc

Doc — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:42:51 +0000

JD,
I agree with your outlook, especially the pleitropic bs. What is your background?

By: JD

JD — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:06:23 +0000

Steve Nissen is a controversial “Ass Clown” who is in the pockets of Pfizer and AStrazeneca right now…the ENHANCE trial was a shit poor designed trial, taking patients who had already been agreesively treated on statins and with “NORMAL” Coratid Intima Thickness…then add Vytorin to see if they reduced the CIMT even more…it was like giving antibiotics to someone who does not have a beacterial infection…Null Results!…whenever it’s good for Nissen, he makes up he opinion to whatever suits his needs…the press runs which his biased and tilted opinions…the fact of the matter is the plaque regression is a class effect..get the LDL-C down to 70 or 50 and you will stop plaque progression and even get regression…all other factors being controlled, like diabetes, hypertension, etc…to bash VYtorin tis year because of crappy ENHANCE study is a shame…it is a good product just like Lipitor, Crestor and Zetia are…ask any doctor who combines Zetia with Crestor or Lipitor and you will hear of phenomenal results in LDL Reduction…and please don’t start with plietropic pixie dust effects of high dose statins…that has not been convincingly proven…at the end of the day, the LDL Hypothesis still stands…THE LOWER THE BETTER!…then go on to treating HDL and Trigs…

By: Jack2

Jack2 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:54:28 +0000

Steven Nissen, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and a prominent critic of Zetia and Vytorin, said the number of patients on Zetia in the study was too small to detect a meaningful difference, nor was getting the Zetia based on randomization.

…I acknowledge this is a posthoc. However, assuming the variation is the same in this analysis and ENHANCE, the SMALLER the study the LARGER the difference needs to be to detect a significant difference.

By: Salmon

Salmon — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:28:13 +0000

PHA,

Re: Post Hoc Analyses

What the heck do you think FDA does when it does safety analyses for drug approvals or taking drugs off the market?

By your standards it’s almost impossible to claim that any (even labeled) side effect is related to a drug.

By: PHA

PHA — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:21:05 +0000

Say what??? The King of Post-Hoc Analyses (Dr. Steve Nissen) who routinely uses these types of studies to take products down, now says they aren’t “as reliable”? I suspect that the folks who work on Avandia and some other products will be happy to hear Dr. Nissen’s new perspective.

By: Former SP

Former SP — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:13:14 +0000

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Like having one of your old buddies do a post-hoc analysis and publish a paper on the results. How relevant are these results, given the fiascos around ENHANCE, SEAS, Vytorin and Zetia over the past year or so?

By: BPW

BPW — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:10:39 +0000

SANDS is old news - rehashed and analyzed post-hoc. Let’s see, 69 patients received Zetia in addition to a statin in this study vs. several hundred in ENHANCE. ENHANCE was designed as the definitive trial while SANDS is a multi-factorial study aggressively treating hypertension and high choleterol in diabetics. Which study is the better study. I’d say ENHANCE, which was negative. I still wouldn’t trust Zetia and I certainly don’t trust Merck and Schering-plough, nor the author of the paper who certainly is not free of conflict.