Should McDonald's offer free statins?
Font size:
Fast food outlets like McDonald's and Burger King should offer statins to neutralize the elevated risk of heart disease associated with eating cheeseburgers and milkshakes, a new study suggests.
The study led by Darrel P. Francis MD from Imperial College London and Imperial NHS Trust, London and colleagues say that offering a "free statin-containing accompaniment" could overcome the increase in the cardiovascular risk associated with eating a Quarter Pounder daily.
The study published in the American Journal of Cardiology was meant to examine if taking statins can offset the risk of heart disease associated with excess dietary intake of fat like partially hydrogenated fat or trans fat.
What the researchers did is compare the increase in the risk of heart disease associated with total fat and trans fat content of fast foods against the decrease in the risk provided by taking statins as shown in a meta-analysis of data from seven randomized controlled trials including 42,848 patients.
Most statins with the exception of pravastatin can overcome the increase in the risk of heart disease associated with the daily extra fat intake from a 7-oz hamburger (Quarter Pounder) with cheese and a small milkshake.
The authors said people know to take protective measures to reduce the risk from certain risk factors such as smoking and driving and they should as well start taking statins to cut the risk of heart disease raised by eating fast foods.
The authors don't suggest that MCDonalds', Buerger King and their competitors to provide statins to the burger eaters. But the message of the study is clear, taking statins can lower heart disease associated with dietary fat - total fat and trans fat.
Statins are indicated to lower the level of serum bad cholesterol, which some studies, but not all suggest cholesterol plays a significant, if not a major, role in the heart disease like stroke and heart attack. Statins are indeed very effective at lowering low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol.
High intake of dietary fat, according to this study, was obviously linked with higher risk of heart disease. Harvard epidemiologists and nutritionists have early found trans fat is correlated with 100,000 of cardiovascular deaths each year in the United States.
But how could statins reduce heart risk? It is no doubt that statins lower the cholesterol levels. But lowering cholesterol does not always reduce the risk of heart attack or cardiovascular death.
One study published in June in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggested, according to Reuters, that stains are not able to save lives of patients who do not have prior cardiovascular problems even though they can prevent some non-fatal heart attacks.
The message from the study could also be misleading. Consumers may be mislead to believe that the "side effects" of fast foods may not be as risky as previously thought now that statins can help overcome the elevated risk.
The authors acknowledged in their study report that statins provide some relief, but it cannot replace other modified healthful lifestyle parameters such as healthy diet, regular exercise, weight loss, and smoking cessation, which can help minimize the risk of heart disease.
Dr. Franz Messerli, the director of the hypertension program at two New York hospitals, St. Luke's and Roosevelt, has the same concern. He was cited by Reuters as saying that giving burger eaters statins could give them a false security.
A health observer suggested that the study is merely to promote use of statins. He said that cholesterol is not the major evil. The major one may be high intake of calcium, which some studies suggest plays a more important role in promoting heart disease.
By David Liu
Add to:
del.icio.us |
Digg
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text
Home
Set as homepage
Add to favorites
Mobile site
Rss
Plain text
Archive
Post your comment