Cholesterol levels have declined among American adults partly due to greater use of medication

6 comments

1. So, that shows that cholesterol lowering pills lower cholesterol?

2. What exactly does age standardized mean? Is this for individuals older than 65? A blog post from harvard shows that statin usage is not at all that simple and is heavily based on individuals 65+ in which the number is far greater than 40% even in 2008. Along with it varying by gender.

   [https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/statin-use-is-up-cholesterol-levels-are-down-are-americans-hearts-benefiting-201104151518](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/statin-use-is-up-cholesterol-levels-are-down-are-americans-hearts-benefiting-201104151518)

   Even preventing death, these reductions don’t necessarily mean an improvement in life quality. Unhealthy cholesterol level changes seem more as though due to market changes than anything else. As statin usage has remained focused on older individuals.

   Edit:

   Looking at the source age standardized means across all ages, this seems very misleading. To claim that statins are the direct cause of this change. It feels like this would have made a lot more compelling case if it included only individuals over 65. Even then I’m not sure the results would be there.

   Edit Edit:

   Here’s an example from the NIH showing how the consumption of high cholesterol food decreases with age and most notably over the age of 60. I find it hard to believe statins are the sole cause of this.

   * The percentage of adults who consumed fast food decreased with age: 44.9% aged 20–39, 37.7% aged 40–59, and 24.1% aged 60 and over.

   [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db322-h.pdf](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db322-h.pdf)

3. since heart disease has increased during the same time frame, this data would seem to indicate that total cholesterol is a poor indicator of risk? or that lowering cholesterol with medication is a means of addressing a symptom but not the cause? or am I misunderstanding the data here?

4. i’ve been hearing more and more gym bros railing against statin use. at least this shows they’re working.

5. Eat this food stuffed full of salt and sugar then buy this medication.

   USA really is all the worst bits of a consumer society.

6. Something interesting I recently learned. Brazil nuts perfectly regulate cholesterol. One study showed that eating 4 brazil nuts in one sitting kept cholesterol levels low for over a month. Don’t eat too many though, too much selenium can cause issues. I eat 3 a day.

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