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Just a couple of years ago, statin discoverer Akira Endo was tackling his elevated cholesterol by exercising more. But the Japanese scientist who won this year's prestigious Lasker Award has drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid.

"Five years ago, my cholesterol levels were at 230-240 mg/dL. My doctor has been asking me to take a statin," Endo tells us in an e-mail. "Now, I am taking a statin drug twice or three times a week. It is very effective."

People with cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dL are considered to be at low risk of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association; 200-to-239 mg/dL is considered borderline-to-high risk, and 240 or above is deemed high risk. Doctors recommend statins for people without known coronary disease whose LDL, or "bad" cholesterol is 190 mg/dL or higher, the heart association says. Those at higher risk can start the drugs even if their LDL levels are lower.

As we noted Saturday, Endo hit upon a fungus four decades ago that inhibited the production of reductase, an enzyme that helps synthesize heart-clogging cholesterol. Despite his groundbreaking discovery, which has been leveraged into a multi-billion-dollar industry, Endo, 74, was reluctant to take statin drugs himself; he told the Wall Street Journal in 2006 that he briefly took Mevacor, but eventually stopped and lowered his cholesterol by working out more.

Endo didn't say what changed his mind. But he tells us he's heartened that his science has made a real-world impact. Some 30 million people around the world take statins, according to the Lasker Foundation. He demurred on questions about their reported side effects — among them, muscle weakness, pain, fatigue and cognitive problems — or whether they confer longer or improved quality of life.

"Trying something good for society has been my dream since boyhood, which has been realized at last by discovering statins," he told us, "but my success as a scientist is far bigger than that I expected at the beginning of my work."

(Image by Heikenwaelder Hugo, www.heikenwaelder.at)

1 Comments

1. 1. yogeshsaxena 06:40 AM 10/30/08

   EFFECTIVE MEASURES TO ERADICATE EVILS
   
   The dawn of independence has virtually came with confrontation of many problems for effective administration. The foremost and the prominent problem was for rehabilitation of the refugees. There was no place for providing them the basic requirement of shelter and for that reason, the government provided the shelter home for them. The locality was not congenial for their adaptation . Thus the hostility amongst the people has started generating their side effects . The civilisation is the beginning of the governance to any nation. In absence of any co-ordination amongst the fellow citizens , the concept of social embodiment was virtually evasive . Thus there was neither any co-operation nor co-ordination amongst the citizens. The sole motto was to accumulate the resources for advancement and to enforce their hypothetical illusive superiority amongst the other inhabitant. Thus there was a complete absence of religious and spiritual concept in the society.
   No man can survive in isolation . There is a rule of give and take . The moment one person is inclined to accept everything as a matter of his right, the person who is inclined to give him his extra potential , withdraw the basic offer. This become the end of social collaboration . No country is able to survive except by the will of the people . The bitterness amongst the people may ultimately lead to a crisis on psychological level. Thus the country required the coercive method for the enforcement of law and order situation. This was on account of partition of India.
   After independence there was the abolition of the Zamindari system in India. The entire agriculture land was wasted to the state government. The farmers were given only their cultivators rights over the rural land. Thus the concept of ownership was diluted to certain extent and those who were in occupation over the agriculture land became the Asami. Even a Bhumidhar was not vested the absolute ownership and was enjoying the transferable cultivators right. Thus the initiative for improvement of the land was slightly undergone a major change. The investment in the agriculture activities was multiplied to its many fold. This was due to inflation and the steep fall in the value of money. Thus it has gradually declined the production of the agriculture produce. The system has further suffered another set back by commercial activities as the cost of the labour was gradually increasing in its output. There was the difficulty faced by the farmers when they have entered the same cost of labour, what was required to be incurred for production.
   The commercial activities and the industrial production were not deprentdent on external factor like environmental misbalance and the natural calamities .The farmer having an agricultur3e production was solely dependent upon these two factors, this has provided a great disharmony in the progress of our nation . There were class prejudice between the various section of the society and this factor was coupled with the socio-economic factor relating to the comparative assessment of cost productivity. On one hand the industrial and commercial productivity was within the control of the labour to a certain extent however there was no organization activities for boosting the cause of the farmers. By the erosion of the ethical values in the society and the rapid growth of the population, there was gradually a process of migration from there motherland to some of the major cities in the search of the better avenues for remuneration by the people. Thus the major population which was totally dependent on their agriculture output an living in rural area has under gone a great set back in respect of their earning prospects and ultimately by the fragmentation of the segment over the peace of the land, there was gradual declination of the standard of living in the village area .
   The political equation which were originally set-up in the pre-independence era were caught in the whirl pool by the violent stroke of caste system which was generating the devaluation in the national integration with cumulative effect . People do not live to face the truth and thus has their evasive attitude which deepens the compulsive gambler maladies by the passage of time. Although there was deep bitterness amongst the different religions but the slogan were promulgated by our political leader to maintain the feeling of the brotherhood which was not possible without proper enforcement. Thus in such as situation when there was already a deep conspiracy to upset the flow of the national esteem amongst the mind of the citizens by the other nation ,the political set-up of our country has further exaggerated such problem to the multiple proportion. There was the need for law enforcement agencies but such enforcement was still not possible without having a control over the system .
   This has become a crisis in the first decade after the independence gradually there was as rampant corruption ascending in the public life and the galloping race which was developed by the process of character assassination could not be halted even after the enforcement of the highest law of our country . The crucial factor , as are being discussed above alike hunger , deficiency ,disharmony and disintegration ,has further provided a fast deteriorating standard of our society and as a counter productive reactionary trend , the crime has perpetuated in our society. In absence of any deterrent , retributive and punitive theory of punishment , the political arena which was previously occupied by our so called political sufferer in the freedom movement, was gradually replaced by the criminals. This was a paradise to every law evading process to shield up their responsibility as a repercussion of the criminal activity by the procedural processed jurisprudence . Thus instead of having any growth for the advancement of the nation, every potential and resources lying within the competence and power of our citizen was vested in providing the security to our political superior. Thus by the dawn of fifty years of independence, India has not only undergone through a political uncertainty but it has exposed its character by demonstrating an example of hypocrisy, religious hatred and criminal domination.
   The industrial output which was occupied by labour contribution, has further suffered on account of low productivity in the public sector. There are about 250 public sector in the central government while 710 public sectors are occupied by the state .These sector have become a money guzzles for the opportunists for accumulating their personal assets. The East India Company was initially given the power to get the administration over the different states as the ruler may earn the revenue through British’s but ultimately they became the ruler. The present industrial set-up of our country has further invited such divisive forces to rule over our nation.
   The first and foremost requirement in our country is to deal with a criminal with severe punishment .It has rightly been said that it is only the fear which keeps a man to do the righteous thing in his life. The bane of caste system, the business of religion and unhygienic process for accumulation of the assets and resources with the limited people which has provided a disharmony in the society , can only be dealt with by confiscation and forfeiture of the property belonging to the criminals. The bonafide citizens and a genuine person may not be liable to suffer the atrocities committed by a criminal who may get escaped from the punishment by making a target on the victim. The state is responsible for every crime and it is a lame excuse that it is meant to preserve only the law and order situation. There is a need for getting every person being removed somehow or other who by his own nature uses to indulge in a criminal activities .
   

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