Professor Ke said the ultimate goal of lipid lowering is to reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease by effectively controlling and improving blood lipid levels, and thus reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. As a component of blood (lipid) purification and separation therapy, "blood washing" has a certain effect on lowering blood lipids and cholesterol, but because hyperlipidemia is a chronic metabolic disease, the production of blood lipids is constantly repeated, want to be overnight, rely on one or two "blood washing However, because hyperlipidemia is a chronic metabolic disease, the production of blood lipids is recurring, and it is difficult to improve the poor metabolic condition by "washing blood" once or twice. Drugs (such as statins) to lower lipids, its role is not only to lower lipids, but also to prevent inflammatory response, anti-platelet aggregation, stabilization of arterial plaque, inhibit smooth muscle translation and proliferation, etc. Evidence-based medicine has proved that these effects in reducing coronary heart disease, heart attack and other morbidity and mortality have an important role. Lipid lowering alone does not prevent cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, from the perspective of evidence-based medicine, there is a lack of convincing clinical evaluation of whether "blood washing" can achieve the ultimate goal of lipid lowering, i.e., to reduce the morbidity and mortality of coronary heart disease.
The efficacy of blood cleansing in lowering blood lipids can only be maintained for about two weeks, with blood lipids returning to their original levels in about one month. If the "wash" after still eat and drink, do not strengthen the exercise, then reduce atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, the incidence of even more can not talk about.
"Wash blood" suitable for pure familial hyperlipidemia patients
Professor Ke said, the human blood cholesterol has a high-density and low-density points, in which high-density lipoprotein cholesterol will have a direct impact on the transformation of a number of compounds with important physiological functions, thus preventing vascular sclerosis, so the The more HDL cholesterol, the less risk of coronary heart disease; while too much LDL cholesterol will be detrimental to health.
Professor Ke believes that another reason why ordinary patients with high blood lipids can't lower their blood lipids by "blood washing" is that, from the point of view of the whole operation process, some equipment removes the "bad" LDL cholesterol and fibrinogen, and at the same time, it also removes the "good" LDL cholesterol and fibrinogen, and at the same time, it also reduces the "good" LDL cholesterol.
Additionally, because the blood needs to be channeled outside the body to be "washed," the natural properties of the blood need to be altered by adding drugs to the blood during the operation, so this practice inevitably carries the dangers of infection, hemorrhage, acid-base imbalance, embolism, and so on. The cost of a "blood wash" is at least 6,000 yuan, and if you want to ensure long-term stability of lipid levels, you need to do it at least once a month, which is very costly and an unnecessary waste of money for the average person.
However, this method can still be considered for patients with intractable hyperlipidemia who have difficulties in adjusting their diets, improving their lifestyles, and taking medications, mainly for patients with hereditary pureblooded familial hyperlipidemia. The principle of drug lipid-lowering relies on the binding of drugs to specific receptors in liver cells to exert a lipid-lowering effect, and these patients often lack such receptors in their bodies due to genetic factors, resulting in ineffective drug therapy. Patients who already have coronary heart disease, high cholesterol levels, and are intolerant to statin drugs for lipid lowering can also consider using "blood washing" therapy, but in the process of receiving "blood washing" therapy, it is still necessary to take lipid regulating drugs.
By "blood washing" therapy to reduce blood fat, must be in the "blood washing" before accepting the "blood washing" to do, including blood lipid tests, blood viscosity, liver function, electrocardiogram and other routine checks. Only when the blood lipid content is really more than the normal limit (the general rule is more than double the normal value), and there is no other should not accept the "blood wash" of the risk of disease can be implemented treatment.
Lowering blood lipids also depends on drugs
The primary treatment for hyperlipidemia is to improve lifestyle. By reducing saturated fatty acids (mainly animal fats) and cholesterol (mainly found in animal offal, meat, egg yolks, etc.), as well as total calorie intake, and by increasing exercise to achieve a balance of calorie "income and expenditure".
If the effects of dietary adjustments and exercise are still unsatisfactory, you can choose safe and effective lipid-regulating drugs under the guidance of a medical professional and insist on taking them for a long time. If the patient's total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol are elevated, statins should be chosen because a large amount of scientific research data at home and abroad confirms that these drugs can regulate lipids in both directions, selectively reduce LDL cholesterol, and moderately increase HDL cholesterol, which will reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and death. If the patient has predominantly elevated triglycerides, fibrates are preferred. If total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides are all high, combination therapy may be needed, such as combining a fibrate with a bile acid spacer, or a bile acid spacer with niacin.
Patients with hyperlipidemia should be cautious about combining statins with betas, or statins with niacin, because this may result in serious adverse effects, such as rhabdomyolysis, acute renal failure, liver function abnormalities, etc., and in severe cases, can even lead to death. Therefore, the use of lipid-lowering drugs must also be used under the guidance of a doctor, and regular monitoring of blood lipids, liver and kidney function, creatine, phosphokinase, to avoid serious adverse reactions.