An Apple A Day–Instead of Statin! – Natural Family Medicine

Love this report from AANP! Read on, and grab and apple!!

THURS., DEC. 19, 2013: JUST-RELEASED NATURAL HEALTH STUDY
AN APPLE A DAY AS GOOD AS A STATIN A DAY: New research shows prescribing an apple a day to all adults aged 50 and over would prevent or delay 8,500 deaths from vascular deaths in the UK annually, which is similar to the effect of giving statin drugs to every person over age 50 who is not already taking them. In other words, this one piece of advice would match the benefits of a widespread medical practice, although it would likely have fewer side effects. (Vascular deaths are those caused by events such as heart attacks and strokes.) Scientists found that offering a daily statin to 17.6 million more adults would reduce the annual number of vascular deaths by 9,400 while a daily apple consumed by 70 percent of the total UK population over age 50 (22 million) would avert 8,500 vascular deaths. However, statin side effects would mean that prescribing statins to everyone over 50 would lead to over a thousand extra cases of myopathy (muscle disease) and over 10,000 extra diagnoses of diabetes. This study was published in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal and is now online in its entirety at http://tinyurl.com/lcyr7fy without charge.

THURS., DEC. 19, 2013: JUST-RELEASED NATURAL HEALTH STUDY

AN APPLE A DAY AS GOOD AS A STATIN A DAY: New research shows prescribing an apple a day to all adults aged 50 and over would prevent or delay 8,500 deaths from vascular deaths in the UK annually, which is similar to the effect of giving statin drugs to every person over age 50 who is not already taking them. In other words, this one piece of advice would match the benefits of a widespread medical practice, although it would likely have fewer side effects. (Vascular deaths are those caused by events such as heart attacks and strokes.) Scientists found that offering a daily statin to 17.6 million more adults would reduce the annual number of vascular deaths by 9,400 while a daily apple consumed by 70 percent of the total UK population over age 50 (22 million) would avert 8,500 vascular deaths. However, statin side effects would mean that prescribing statins to everyone over 50 would lead to over a thousand extra cases of myopathy (muscle disease) and over 10,000 extra diagnoses of diabetes. This study was published in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal and is now online in its entirety at http://tinyurl.com/lcyr7fy without charge.

DID YOU KNOW…?

Smoking marijuana daily for three years was found to produce abnormal changes in brain structures related to working memory and to cause poor performance on memory tasks.