cholesterol findings/C 19

[Resurgam]

I was wandering around Twitter, I think - (it was the early hour of the morning), and down one of the many rabbit holes I wandered I came across a report which explains the skewing of the deaths from the Corvid 19 virus more towards men. Not that I believe everything I read on the internet of course - but it reported that analysis of the bloods of the people in China who had the most serious problems, up to and including death, had low cholesterol levels - most notably low LDL and - I think triglycerides.
If it is correct then perhaps that explains the comorbidity with diabetes as we are put on statins from day one, or soon after - and we are told we must lower our cholesterol levels or dreadful things will happen. At least, I was.
Anyone else come across this?

 

[HSSS]

Saw this today on the same subject. Charts and references were there. Submitted to but not yet published in the lancet

Researchers from Wenzhou, China looked at clinical laboratory features including lipid levels of patients with COVID 19. They found dramatic reductions in the cholesterol levels of patients infected with COVID 19, compared with healthy controls (1)

The study provides data to suggest that cholesterol levels decline quite rapidly during the early stages of infection and increase as the patient starts to recover. Therefore, indicating that cholesterol may have an important role to play in defending the body against such infections.

This perhaps, should not be a surprise, since we already know that cholesterol is an extremely important part of the immune system.

Back in 1997, researchers in the Netherlands published an article in the Lancet showing elderly people with the highest cholesterol levels are best protected from cancer and infections (2).

Other research, published in 2013, led by the University of California, found that derivatives of cholesterol play an important role in the immune system and could protect humans from a wide range of viruses, such as: Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah, and other deadly pathogens (3).

Two other studies in 2016 found that cholesterol-lowering statins impair the immune system and block the effectiveness of the flu vaccine (4 , 5).​

http://statinnation.com/blog/2020/3...rRXNAY6gjpELK84ikChHZvtInLH-Elux6DAnjPC4PX0fQ

 

[HSSS]

So this begs the question were they low before they caught the virus or as a result of it? The difference is important.

 

[Brunneria]

It is also important to appreciate that we have no idea whether statins play any part at all.

does anyone know if the Chinese medical profession habitually prescribes statins?

 

[Grant_Vicat]

It is also important to appreciate that we have no idea whether statins play any part at all.

does anyone know if the Chinese medical profession habitually prescribes statins?

This is not a direct answer, but interesting nevertheless:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...vastatin-Market-China-2019-2023-Shares-Volume

 

[mariefrance]

There was a little bit about COVID-19 and possible reasons for gender disparity on More or Less on Radio 4 this morning.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h7st

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Anyone else come across this?

Yep. Interesting isn't it.

Hu, Xingzhong and Chen, Dong and Wu, Lianpeng and He, Guiqing and Ye, Wei, Low Serum Cholesterol Level Among Patients with COVID-19 Infection in Wenzhou, China (February 21, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3544826 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3544826

In my general mooching about that I've been doing on Youtube, I've been amazed at how much research has already been done. I've also seen two guys, one South African and one American, who have a channel called ADV China and they discuss quite a lot of China related things including a look at job adverts at Wuhan University for two research scientist, subject Corona viruses and that was back in November.

One thing they identified was something that has gone on for years, China is sending young people overseas, usually the US, Australia and their job is to buy stuff where they can. It became more obvious because a Chinese woman in the U.S., Hexin Jiang, videoed herself buying a trolley load of masks, in fact she cleared the store out, she openly boasts about getting all the masks before the Americans could. She would then send them back to China where they are sold at profit. They actually drive round and cleared out most shelves in the U.S. The video is dated January just before they knew what was coming. What she didn't bargain for was the scorn that she received from her fellow Chines persons everywhere. She brought shame on her country. Just google her name if you're interested.