I was trying to stay out of this little spat between you two, but as someone who takes V off-label for chronic systemic inflammation *not* caused by highly elevated lipid levels I had to jump in on this bit:
the problem is that you are so HUNG UP on convincing yourself that elevated C-reactive protein (inflammation) is caused by some mysterious and unknown disease
There are many causes for elevated hs-CRP, Lp-PLA2, and other infammatory biomarkers, including diseases, poor diet, and other various health problems.
that you fail to realize that there are many things that can cause inflammation.
Well yes, nobody is arguing that point, are they?
The fact remains that if you friggin PLUG up your vessels with lipids (fatty acids) you WILL experience increased CVD...PERIOD! Therefore, if you LOWER the lipid accumulation in the blood vessel walls, you will lower the incidence of CVD.
If those lipids are LDL-C, that has been established - if they are TGs, only REDUCE-IT will finally prove that beyond a doubt, and even then I believe we'll still be left to ponder whether it was due to V's anti-inflammatory properties or it's ability to lower TGs, which leads to less inflammation, i.e. which came first. You guys can argue that point until you're blue in the face ;-)
To wit: this summer, severe lung stress/irritation/inflammation from air pollution and we assume my horrendous ragweed allergy (worse summer on record for ragweed where I live) caused my liver enzymes and TGs to rocket from close to normal to the stratosphere while HDL stayed > 60, LDL < 200. Got a Flovent inhaler last month, and it's literally been a lifesaver - won't know what's going on with the liver/TGs until my next checkup in March, but based on body queues I've learned to watch I'm positive they'll be much improved, liver stress is noticeably decreased, along with BP problems related to lung stress.
My point: it appears, at least per how my damaged body and organs reacted (congenital NAFLD), that the high TGs were a response to severe inflammation, not the other way around - don't ask me how that works, even my doctor didn't know, because there is just way too much weird stuff going on due to my health problems that it's nearly impossible to many separate cause/effects clearly.
Now guess what Vascepa's purpose is?
On paper, to lower TGs without raising LDL - for me, it's to decrease systemic inflammation, with a side benefit of lowering TGs. I've seen cardios, had multiple scans/tests, and my heart and arteries are in fine shape, but the heart does get stressed when the lungs get stressed - impossible to calculate my real CVE risk, and it likely varies by the day or week to boot.