Interesting News On The Medical Front

 Rehabilitation & Spinal Care of Rockford is concerned with your overall health and wellness, and in this vein attempts to provide it's blog readers with current medical information that is pertinent to them. In this particular case, a recent bit of news came out of the cardiovascular realm of medicine which has implications for musculoskeletal and nutritional health.

 One of the front-line medications for heart disease is a Niaspan, a niacin (vitamin B3) based medicine that helps to lower "bad" cholesterol (LDL, triglycerides) and raise "good" cholesterol (HDL) in the bloodstream. The express purpose of lowering the aforementioned "bad" cholesterol levels is lowering the risks of strokes and heart attacks.

 This study, the HPS-2-THRIVE, found that the extended-release niacin/laropiprant medication used in the study, while helping to raise the "good" cholesterol, has dubious value in preventing adverse vascular events. Overall, the patients within the study, and there were 25,673 of them, did experience an average drop of 10 mg/dl in LDL values and 33 mg/dl in triglyceride values, but that those drops did not result in less vascular events (stroke, heart disease).

 This is relevant to the patients of RASC Rockford in large part because of the use of niacin as a supplement to affect cholesterol levels. It also affects RASC patients because the typical next treatment for patients with cholesterol problems is a statin-drug. Statins affect the production of cholesterol within the body and can cause vague musculo-skeletal problems in patients who are taking the medication. This can be remedied with the use of CoQ-10 supplementation and RASC provides the highest quality CoQ-10 to it's patients.