Updated September 7, 2026 with the HERMES and ATHENA trials both stopped early. ZEUS lowered inflammation exactly as designed and did not cut cardiovascular events. That weakens hs-CRP as something to treat, not as something worth measuring. Update, August 22, 2026: the people behind the colchicine trials have answered ZEUS, and a new UK Biobank
Both drugs block PCSK9 and cut LDL by about the same amount. Repatha is available now and cheap for most insured people. Lipfendra saves you the needle but asks for a daily fasting window, and paying cash it costs $89 to $117 a month more than the shot.
The FDA approved Lipfendra (enlicitide), the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor. What it costs, how the pill compares to the shots, and who actually needs it.
The 2025 blood pressure guidelines sound like a shake-up. Here’s what actually changed about who gets medication, and why it barely moved the needle.
A million-person Lancet study shows older adults with obesity now match normal-weight peers on blood pressure and cholesterol, thanks to cheap statins and blood-pressure pills, not weight loss.
The “five times the risk” number is real. The useful lesson for a fifty-year-old is smaller, less sexy, and more actionable. I have read the claim that VO2 max is the single best predictor of how long you will live so many times that I had stopped seeing it. It is everywhere in the longevity
The most influential cholesterol educator alive can’t tolerate statins or ezetimibe. When he needed the expensive PCSK9 drug, his insurer said his numbers were too good to cover.
Eli Lilly’s VERVE-102 gene-editing therapy cut LDL by 62 percent at the highest dose in Phase 1, with no treatment-related serious adverse events. It edits a single DNA letter in the PCSK9 gene of liver cells. The effect appears permanent. The trade-off is that you cannot undo it.
I have an avocado oil spray bottle. I do not know what tallow is. A 50-year-old dude reads the actual research on seed oils, dairy, and the latest dietary advice cycle — and reports what the evidence says you should put in your frying pan.
Your cholesterol panel at 50, decoded. The six numbers, the new 2026 guideline targets, the coronary calcium scan, and what the drugs actually do.
