Cholesterol and Statin Drugs
By Dr. Ron Gristanti, DC
I start to think it’s a dead horse then, I see this same scenario play out again, patients come to me terrified of their own cholesterol, in a panic because another doctor told them to take a drug to lower their cholesterol or die of a heart attack.
Continuing evidence has led me to a simpler and even more radical divergence from the conventional cholesterol hysteria to this: Cholesterol does not cause heart disease.
Cholesterol is the thing that heart disease acts upon. The disease is the oxidation in your blood vessel that causes the cholesterol to form inflammatory plaques.
Think for a moment if I were to do a bone density test on you. I read you your results and say, well, there a problem with your bones. They’ve lost density so I afraid we’re going to have to take them out. Of course, you need your bones regardless of if there is a disease afflicting them.
Likewise, you need your cholesterol. It is a central part of some very important metabolic pathways. In fact, it is probably the most important hormone precursor in your body. You make all sex steroids from cholesterol. [And cholesterols are anti-inflammatory].
In the fight against heart disease, cholesterol is the victim the disease afflicts not the culprit. Truth be told, it is the conventionally accepted approach of declaring war on you own cholesterol that is crazy and radical.
Especially since cholesterol drugs have such debilitating side effects. For one, they prevent the production of one of the most vital nutrients in your body: CoQ10. They cause muscle pain and weakness, make you feel old and tired - and its completely unnecessary. Despite decades of mounting evidence that its the inflammation and oxidation that’s problematic, mainstream medicine in the US seems determined to put every man, woman and child on cholesterol drugs.
I recently received an unexpected ally in the UK. The British Medical Journal warned that the American cholesterol goals are too low and criticized the American obsession with forcing cholesterol lower and lower with statin drugs. Even I was surprised. Its not everyday you see the establishment attack the establishment.
If you want to prevent heart disease, don’t bother with drugs that drive down your cholesterol. Fight the real cause: inflammation.
Here are three easy-to-follow options that don’t involve declaring war on your own metabolism:
Reduce Homocysteine: A deficiency of anti-oxidants in your diet leads to the accumulation of homocysteine in your blood. This impairs your blood vessels normal capacity to dilate on demand. This inadequate blood flow to the heart can cause heart attacks; inadequate blood flow to the brain can cause strokes.
You can easily reduce homocysteine by taking B vitamins. They support your natural system for breaking down this amino acid. All the patients at my clinic have successfully lowered their elevated homocysteine levels with nothing more than a vitamin supplement.
Lower C-Reactive Protein: Elevated CRP levels indicate that there is inflammation in within your cardiovascular system. Using this measure, we can detect if you have disease afflicting your cholesterol.
Take Care of Your Teeth: Studies show that people with gum disease suffer heart attacks significantly more often than those with healthy gums and teeth.
That’s because bacteria in your mouth can sneak through diseased gums and enter the bloodstream, where it causes inflammation. The chronic infection activates white blood cells, which create arterial lesions and encourage plaque build-up on the walls of your arteries.
Fortunately, you can easily prevent or reverse gum disease. Start by brushing your teeth for three to four minutes twice a day. You can floss once a day, and schedule regular cleanings with your dentist. But I have a favorite old-fashioned cure; gargle with salt water every night before bed. You can make it yourself by dissolving a teaspoon of sea salt into 2 ounces of water, swish well and spit.
Cholesterol-Lowering drugs in the USA, known as statins, are the most widely sold pharmaceutical drugs. Accounting for 6.5% of the total market share, statins raked in 12.5 billion dollars!
These drugs are dealt to the public by the masses with the rhetoric of preventing early death from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Yet, the absolute number of deaths from cardiovascular disease - 750,000 deaths per year - has not changed for the last 25 years.
Still though, drug companies make every effort to convince the public that cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor are not only effective at preventing CVD but also safe. They even go as far as lying. Lipitor serves as a perfect example.
Pfizer publicizes that rhabdomyolysis (i.e. muscle deterioration exhibited by muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness) and myopathy (muscular dystrophies) only occur with “other drugs” in the statin class, not Lipitor (see ads in Time, Readers Digest, Good Houskeeping, Womans Day and Health).
However, in 2002, the FDA sent a letter to Pfizer stating that, based on Pfizer’s own clinical trials, this was simply untrue. Consequently, they were in clear violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by making these false claims.
More specifically, in their letter to Pfizer, the FDA stated that Pfizer’s advertisements “fail to disclose that Lipitor has the same potential risk of rhabdomyolysis and myopathy as other lipid-lowering statin drugs.” Despite Pfizer’s non-compliance with the law, the FDA did not press charges.
Pfizer’s false advertising isn’t the only action taken by the billion-dollar pharmaceutical company to procure profits from cholesterol lowering drug sales.
Clinical trials showed that Lipitor is effective at doses ranging from 2.5mg to 5mg. However, in a race for more money, Pfizer demands that Lipitor be prescribed starting at 10mg.
This starting dose is approximately 300% higher than the dose needed to lower total cholesterol levels!
More astounding, doctors are now prescribing up to 80mgs!
If you are currently taking statins this fact elucidates why you are required to go in for regular liver testing, you are being overdosed.
Unknown to the public and most doctors, statin drugs such as Lipitor can be life threatening.
In a letter to the Archives of Internal Medicine, Uffe Ravnskov MD, PhD and colleagues show that in two of the three clinical trials that included healthy people, the chance of surviving was better without treatment of statins.
Moreover, researchers from the University of Denmark report that about 15% of statin users over the age of 50 will suffer from nerve damage.
Fortunately, 50% of those who take cholesterol lowering drugs still have their brain cells intact and quit voluntarily due to experiencing negative side effects.
Is the risk worth the benefit?
To date, not a single cholesterol lowering drug trial has shown to increase survival rates among drug users.
Repeat that. Translation: Large risk, no benefit.
This should be obvious. The absolute number of deaths from cardiovascular disease has not changed for the last 25 years.
Statin drug users may want to reconsider their approach to prevention and their blind loyalty to statin drugs - USA Today reported, “Statins have killed and injured more people than the government has acknowledged”.
Despite American Dogma, you don’t have to be a drug addict to be healthy. Safe and effective natural medicines (nutraceuticals) that help to prevent both cardiovascular disease and the negative side effects from statins are abundant.
Seek education not prescriptions.
(Source: Your medical detective.com)