If you blameless lowered your cholesterol, you could reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke. Drug companies have done their best to deposit you focused on medications that bring cholesterol levels down. Turn on TV or open a periodical and you are likely to see an ad featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik, known as the inventor of the artificial heart.

He promotes Lipitor to discount cholesterol, and he has been wildly successful. The company brags that its statin-type medication has been prescribed to more than 26 million Americans. Lipitor earned its manufacturer and than $13 billion in 2006. Lipitor is not alone. Millions of Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs like Crestor, Mevacor, Pravachol, Vytorin, Zocor and Zetia.

But perplexing new information have many patients confused. Headlines recently announced the results of a study comparing Vytorin, which contains both Zetia (ezetimibe) and Zocor (simvastatin), to Zocor alone.

Although Vytorin lowered bad LDL cholesterol 17 percent deeper than Zocor, the combination pill did not reduce dangerous plaque buildup in neck arteries. The patients on Vytorin may much have had slightly more plaque buildup. Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Steven Nissen was stunned by the consequence and called on his colleagues to reconsider routine use of Zetia or Vytorin as first-line treatments.

In 2006, 18 million prescriptions were written for Vytorin and 14 million championing Zetia.

Lowering cholesterol, especially bad LDL cholesterol, is assumed to be the Holy Grail representing preventing atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events.

But an earlier study of a novel medication called torcetrapib that lowers LDL and raises good HDL cholesterol was abandoned when patients taking the medicine in truth had aggrandized heart attacks and strokes. The new announce of Vytorin suggests that reducing LDL numbers may not be enough.

Even for tried-and-true cholesterol-lowering drugs, the benefit for any given especial may be smaller than people imagine. Lipitor, for example, has been shown in studies to prevent heart attacks.

Media ads capitalize on this, announcing that Lipitor cuts back the risk of affection attack by 36 percent. There is an asterisk coterminous to that number, however, and here is the fine print: That intend in a blimp clinical study, 3 percent of patients bewitching a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2 percent of patients taking Lipitor."

See Business Week, Jan. 17, 2008.)

In other words, whether you had 100 humans fascinating Lipitor and another 100 people taking an inactive placebo, there would be one less heart attack after several years amid the folks on Lipitor. That certainly matters a great deal if you are the one who was spared.

But if you are lone of the other 99, the cost and risk of side effects may seem high. No one should stop taking cholesterol-lowering medication without medical supervision, but cholesterol is not the only thing that matters. Physicians have known for decades that there are more than 200 risk ingredient for heart disease (New Great britain Journal of Medicine, Nov.

14, 2002). Inflammation, stress, hostility, depression and high triglycerides are just a few of the other contributors to heart disease. Focusing on cholesterol alone could be a big mistake.

Q. We tried a treatment from your path for nighttime stump cramps. My husband used to get them frequently and would have to walk them elsewhere while in pain.

He read that captivating mustard would alleviate them, so he tried it. At once when he gets pin cramps at night, he takes his mustard and they hardihood away quickly. He hang on to a few identical packets of mustard in the bedroom.

From http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/dailycols/5489595.html

To expose residents to some of those treatments, Janelli recently held a Holistic Health Fair at the Merrimac Usual Library so people could be aware of the benefits that advance from holistic care - treating the whole person, rather than just a specific pain or disease.

Janelli, who has been practicing Reiki for 12 years, has a dodge in Merrimac where she and four other therapists offer polarity, crystal work, massage therapy and Reiki. Jane Binder of Merrimac, who attended the objective with her husband, is a Reiki patient. She believes that alternative medicine works, but that "people don't give it a chance." She described how, at the age of 6, she could no longer stand as a result of calcium loss in her legs.

Her doctors predicted that she would never regain the use of her legs. Nevertheless she recalls the "miracle" of walking again after drinking liver blood prescribed by her grandmother, a part-Native American lady who lived to the age of 99 in spite of never visiting a doctor.

Her husband, Ed, said he like better to rely on "a lot of vitamins and herbs." I hate drugs," he said.

Binder's dislike championing formula medication came after he experienced a severe reaction to drugs prescribed for his cluster headaches.

His wife said that medication "almost crippled him," and lone lifetime he was carried to the infirmary because he could not walk. That's when we swore off" the drugs, she said.

His headaches were ultimately cured by handling of from a chiropractor. Among those participating in the impartial was Emily Flaherty of Em's Earrings Etc. West Newbury. She put together jewelry by hand, using consistent stones that she chooses representing their curative properties.

Flaherty described how the amethyst necklace she was wearing "helps me get upon this cold." An amethyst can be cast-off for emotional, physical and spiritual healing, according to Flaherty. Longtime Merrimac resident Joanne Vien of Joanne's Jewels also heals using jewelry made of crystals.

Vien wire-wraps the stones so they can be held closer to the body, such as a pendant or ring, compared with simply holding a stone. Some of the unusual stones she works with include citrine, which she said increases self-esteem and self-confidence, and moldavite, which enhances the strength of other crystals and was formed from a meteorite.

Also participating at the health fair was medicinal herbalist Cassandra Campbell of Hidden Enchantments. She explained how she happen on with first-time clients for at least one hour to find out what's going on. Herbalism is not different from science," she said. It's formulas."

She finds that herbal remedy "work great for chronic symptoms" of medical problems such as arthritis, osteoporosis and any hide condition. Campbell identified eczema and psoriasis as examples of conditions that herbalists impression as symptoms of an underlying disease.

As an herbalist, you look at the skin as an organ," she said. Your skin is the first pointer to tell you something is faulty with your body." Merrimac resident Joyce Clohecy said, "This is how we dealt with our problems" before recipe medication. Her success with alternative pharmaceutical began with what she describes as "tremendous sinus headaches" that were not alleviated by medication.

She finally received treatments from an acupuncturist, and the headaches she had endured for weeks disappeared and never returned. Of her acupuncture experience, she said, "You feel heat. You can feel it when it drains. It's the energy."

Others participating in the fair were Sharon Linnea Smith of Metamorphic Art Works (animal intuitive, fiord healer, vital spirit retriever, Reiki master, Tong Ren); Pat Zalewski (sound therapist, polarity practitioner); and Kim Cooper of Rewind Bit (nonsurgical face-lifts).

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