I dug out the information from an interview with Ivor Cummings' discussion with Dave Feldman (blog 63).
The following paper was published in the Lancet regarding the Corona virus and patients’ total cholesterol/ HDL and LDL. Click on the link and you can view in your browser or download .
It seems that in viral infections cholesterol/HDL and LDL (you know - the deadly kind!) drop in response to infections such as cold, flu, SARS and Covid 19.
Patients who expressed symptoms and were tested were found to have low levels compared to the healthy control group with normal levels and were more likely to succumb to it. The level of HDL/LDL total cholesterol in the male patients were significantly lower than that in the female patients. This might explain why 3 x more men than women die of the virus - something that has come to light in recent days.
Given that the old (especially with underlying health issues) are the most likely to die of Covid 19 and can be on multiple medications, one has to ask whether people on cholesterol/LDL lowering statin medication, are at greater risk than those on none?
The link doesn't work, but if you paste:
Low Serum Cholesterol Level Among Patients with COVID-19 Infection in Wenzhou, China
You'll find it.
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MikePollard
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This is very interesting, concerning, and, hopefully revealing in terms of controlling this. Thanks for sharing this. I'm sending it to a few male friends.
I was about to do a similar rant (since I'm stuck in the house with nothing to do).
My guess (and it's only a guess) is that it's a bit more complicated than low or high cholesterol. Apparently, 99% of the people who died in Italy had serious pre-existing conditions. Of those, maybe half (it's hard to tell from the stats) had some cluster of symptoms associated with metabolic syndrome: high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, diabetes, and similar. The rest had cancer, chronic lung disease, or kidney disease.
In other words, they were just in real bad shape, partly as a consequence of a "healthy" high-carb diet.
OTOH, statins are poison. They have wide-ranging detrimental effects. If your body is attempting to fight off an infection while hamstrung by statins, that may tip the balance between success and failure.
It’s definitely something for the scientists and hospitals to take note of. There’s already been lots of debate about the negative side effects of ibuprofen on patients with Covid 19. This may be another observation that helps in the fight.
I noticed that statistic and wondered why men's death's are outnumbering those of woman. Very interesting (and reassuring to an extent if you're female!)
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