The Facts about Statins and Lowering Your Cholesterol
Is your doctor hading pills out like candy? Ever ask why?
Did you know you may need Statins? Who you may ask….well of course everyone! So called Ground-breaking research has done it again and every major news media outlet is just happy to promote this good news and save the world. You need drugs. That’s right….statins are essential to life now it seems. Oxygen a close second. I think Huey Lewis just got a new deal to sing “I want a new drug”. Oh so happy news. Maybe next Halloween can all go dressed up as sick zombie like creatures addicted to statin drugs! Ok…….enough of the tiny bit of sarcasm.
Once again mainstream media and the medical establishment make me want to sell the TV, throw the radio in the lake and move to an island. But I digress. In case you don’t know what I am talking about then consider yourself lucky not paying attention to the media, because I think this was everywhere (side rant….do they even question what they release to the public anymore? Oh wait….I know who pays the advertising bills and media companies want to make sure their sponsors are happy afterall…ok back to topic at hand) The original story is claiming we all need statins, and is driving people like myself and Mark at Marks Daily Apple mad (he beat me to ranting about this). Below is the press release from the media earlier this week about Statins and you can read the whole thing here (but I’ll highlight up the “best” parts below)
Cardiovascular Disease is the leading cause of death among Americans, costing our healthcare system hundreds of millions of dollars and causing untold suffering. Now there is new hope for preventing this fatal disease – even among those who weren’t thought to be at risk.
Ok we start off by scaring everyone into paying attention…….now what’s next…..
A new study has found that millions of people could cut their risk of a heart attack, stroke and death by taking statins. The study, released at the American Heart Association‘s annual meeting this week, found the benefits even for people with low cholesterol and no major risk for heart disease.
Did I just read that right? Even if your cholesterol is low…and have no risks…you need drugs? Huh?
About half all heart attacks and strokes occur in people who do not have elevated cholesterol.
Wait, high cholesterol isn’t even the big bad factor that medicine said it was a few years ago? Wow….shows what they really know about it.
Patients in the study had normal cholesterol. But they had higher levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation that indicates a risk of heart disease.
Finally….a piece of the puzzle that makes sense. INFLAMMATION is more detrimental than high cholesterol. So why do we need the statins again? That part sort of confuses me a bit…somehow statins got lumped into helping people who are really suffering from more inflammation issues.
Well seems Cholestrol isn’t such the evil guy as doctors make it out to be, yet they continue to hand out statins like candy because if you ask any doctor I bet they will say “high cholesterol puts you at risk for heart disease” when there is NO research to prove anyone without a previous heart condition or any woman will even help. Don’t believe me? Well here’s some info below to help clear the air on Cholesterol….
from the Business Week article Jan 08 titled “Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good?”
Yes, Wright saw, the drugs can be life-saving in patients who already have suffered heart attacks, somewhat reducing the chances of a recurrence that could lead to an early death. But Wright had a surprise when he looked at the data for the majority of patients, like Winn, who don’t have heart disease. He found no benefit in people over the age of 65, no matter how much their cholesterol declines, and no benefit in women of any age.
For one thing, many researchers harbor doubts about the need to drive down cholesterol levels in the first place.
The second crucial point is hiding in plain sight in Pfizer’s own Lipitor newspaper ad. The dramatic 36% figure has an asterisk. Read the smaller type. It says: “That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor.” The numbers in that sentence mean that for every 100 people in the trial, which lasted 3 1/3 years, three people on placebos and two people on Lipitor had heart attacks. The difference credited to the drug? One fewer heart attack per 100 people. So to spare one person a heart attack, 100 people had to take Lipitor for more than three years. The other 99 got no measurable benefit.
If we knew for sure that a medicine was completely safe and inexpensive, then its widespread use would be a no-brainer, even with a high NNT of 100. But an estimated 10% to 15% of statin users suffer side effects, including muscle pain, cognitive impairments, and sexual dysfunction. And the widespread use of statins comes at the cost of billions of dollars a year, not just for the drugs but also for doctors’ visits, cholesterol screening, and other tests. Since health-care dollars are finite, “resources are not going to interventions that might be of benefit,” says Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb, associate professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine.
What would work better? Perhaps urging people to switch to a Mediterranean diet or simply to eat more fish. In several studies, both lifestyle changes brought greater declines in heart attacks than statins
Difficult risk-benefit questions surround most drugs, not just statins. One dirty little secret of modern medicine is that many drugs work only in a minority of people. “There’s a tendency to assume drugs work really well, but people would be surprised by the actual magnitude of the benefits,” says Dr. Steven Woloshin, associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School.
The drug business is, after all, a business. Companies are supposed to boost sales and returns to shareholders. The problem they face, though, is that many drugs are most effective in relatively small subgroups of sufferers. With statins, these are the patients who already have heart disease. But that’s not a blockbuster market. So companies have every incentive to market their drugs as being essential for wider groups of people, for whom the benefits are, by definition, smaller.
Drugmakers, however, do make sure that the researchers and doctors who extol the benefits of medications are well compensated. “It’s almost impossible to find someone who believes strongly in statins who does not get a lot of money from industry,” says Dr. Rodney A. Hayward, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Here’s an interesting story from NY times site titled “Do Statins Make You Stupid”?
After I wrote about the issue several years ago, a colleague who had once memorized poetry as a hobby told me he was unable to remember poems once he started taking statins. Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb, assistant professor at the University of California at San Diego, has collected thousands of stories from patients about statin side effects. She has said common complaints from patients taking statins include being unable to remember the name of a grandchild, walking into a room and forgetting why you are there, or starting a sentence and being unable to finish. Some complain of personality changes or irritability.
More older people get put on statins….more older people suffer from Alzheimer’s….anyone picking up on this connection in the main stream???
Dr Michael Eades (Protein Power author) also has plenty to say about Cholesterol on his blog including this article about high fat-low fat diets (and corresponding carbs) and what it does to particle size (yes, that is important)
If we look at the HCLF group, however, we see a different picture. In the subjects following the low-fat diet LDL-cholesterol levels fell while apoB numbers stayed the same. This means that there are the same number of particles as before but they became smaller after 24 weeks of low-fat dieting. In other words, the low-fat diet converted the LDL-particles into the more dangerous smaller, denser type. And these guys have the temerity to tell the world that low-carb dieting makes lipid numbers worse!
As Dr Mike says, big and fluffy particle size is good….smaller and more dense is bad. Also you have to read the horror story of one of his readers when his doctor put him on statins.
Over this course: I have lost from 212 lbs. down to 170 lbs., lost muscle mass everywhere even down to my hands, lost close to 50% of my body strength, lost the ability to walk, concentrate and apprehend. I have lived with absolute fatigue, no libido, no appetite, depressive thoughts, anxiety, insomnia and horrible pain. I have been diagnosed with and/or treated for GAD (general anxiety disorder), depression, insomnia, arthritis, ED, poked, prodded and told that “I was just getting old”. I have been sent to a shrink. I came close to losing my ability to make a living. All of this because of a number on a scale that prompted a doctor to put me on a statin, which I have found, through my exhaustive research, has no advantages in overall mortality rate.
Here’s also a great educational video on cholesterol by Dr Ron Rosedale (this is a video posted on You Tube) titled Exposing the Cholesterol Myth.
Lastly Weston Price has a great read on Cholesterol:Friend or Foe:
The question is, why do some people have more cholesterol in their blood than others, and why can the same person have different levels of cholesterol at different times of the day? Why is our level of cholesterol different in different seasons of the year? In winter it goes up and in the summer it goes down. Why is it that blood cholesterol goes through the roof in people after any surgery? Why does blood cholesterol go up when we have an infection? Why does it go up after dental treatment? Why does it go up when we are under stress? And why does it become normal when we are relaxed and feel well? The answer to all these questions is this: cholesterol is a healing agent in the body. When the body has some healing jobs to do, it produces cholesterol and sends it to the site of the damage. Depending on the time of day, the weather, the season and our exposure to various environmental agents, the damage to various tissues in the body varies. As a result, the production of cholesterol in the body also varies.
So what have we learned….I mean besides Drug companies will blanket the media with slick marketing trying to get everyone to buy and use their drugs every single day….well until they are actually held accountable for all they are doing to us in the meantime.
- Cholesterol is not the bad guy as made out. Inflammation is a greater risk factor
- Cholesterol is 80% made by the liver….doesn’t matter what you eat. If you eat less cholesterol then the body makes more. If you eat more cholesterol then the body makes less.
- If your doctor says you need statins, ask him/her where the actual proof is that they do any good….there is none. If they still force you to take it….I might think about finding a new doctor who will work with your lifestyle changes instead. (of course I am no medical professional who can judge your real risk factors so you can’t listen to me…but from the looks of it above, are those doctor even aware of why they are giving out statins?)
- Eating better foods and exercise seem to do more than statins to reduce risks for heart disease
- If we stopped spending billions of dollars on cholesterol related medical visits and procedure, and put it to educating people about what is really going on….we could probably help millions (but there is no financial gain for any company for that).
- Low Fat/High Carb diets make more smaller dense dangerous cholesterol particles (so we can thank the whole eat “low fat” advice over the last few decades as a role in increasing heart diseases)
- Statins make us sick and dumber….all to prevent something it hasn’t been proven to help for most all people. How is this legally on the market?
- Cholesterol goes up when the body is under stress (including inflammation, immmune system, toxins and chemicals in us, oxidative damamge, free radicals, etc). I know chronic joggers with high cholesterol who won’t listen to me when I say “stop jogging so much and eat less sugar”. But they would rather think their doctor knows it all. Sigh…..
- Get your SLEEP….and stop stressing out all day. Lack of sleep and chronic stress leads to increased insulin resistance…high insulin…and all the fun things to come. Lifestyle is a huge factor…and if we choose to ignore this then we choose to make ourselves sicker.
- Get rid of ALL vegetable oils….want a great way to cause cell membrane destruction? Increase your consumption of unstable and easily oxidized fats (PUFAs). Eat more “stable” Sat and MUFA (monounsat fats).
- High Insulin drives MORE cholesterol production!!!! Focus on what matters, insulin control!!!! How do we do that? Well high insulin levels are usually a result of insulin resistance brought on by high blood sugar (from eating/drinking too much processed/easily broken down carbs and sugar and also a lack of protein with meals to slow down gastric emptying). Best ways to reverse the damage, eat less sugar and processed carbs to keep blood sugar stable, eat more proteins/healthy fats/whole food carbs like fruits and vegetables, and exercise to improve insulin sensitivity. Hands down the best way to get better! HyperInsulinia (chronic high insulin levels) could be the #1 risk factor for most ALL diseases.
There you have it….spread the word, spread the truth….as we have to take responsibility for our own health nowadays and realize the HUGE impact our eating and lifestyle have on our state of health. (before they put it in our drinking water for our “own health”)
photo used by zebrapaperclip
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God damned right. And what ninnies recommending statins to everybody.
How about periods of fasting to improve insulin sensitivity, exercise to improve insulin sensitivity, filtered black coffee and other rich sources of antioxidants — to improve insulin sensitivity — omega 3 fatty acids from fish to reduce inflammation, garlic to reduce inflammation and do a world of good in other areas, probiotics for a healthy gut plus other huge benefits… and not taking bloody drugs.
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“And what ninnies recommending statins to everybody.” …Sadly anyone that uses the mainstream media as their source of education….that and statins aren’t even necessary or even beneficial for 99% of the people out there…yet doctors prescribe them like candy.
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Tell me about it. And usually I mean that in a political sense.
Seriously this time, I don’t know a whole lot about statins. I’ll admit that right now. Probably more than the general population, but that’s not saying a lot. I’ve read a few articles about them and have a rough understanding of the basic chemistry with which they’re supposed to operate.
But while they may be helpful to some patients who couldn’t comply with a proper health regime, they”re not going to convince me it’s more effective than the regime I outlined above in my first comment.
Admittedly, however, that would require a much more motivated and educated patient. Which is a good thing.
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Following a typical modern lifestyle, with little exercise, processed foods and a relatively high car low fat diet will, over the long term, lead to health problems for most, if not, all people. The medical advice generally offered ,once problems are encounetered ,seems to be to exercise a bit (generally aerobic), and eat less fat and more complex carbs (wheat) – if that doesn’t do the trick – and I would would guess it quite possiby makes the underlying condition worse for most, the patient goes down the route of medication, more medication, a poorer qualty of life, and so on…… Doctors, and hospitals are busy, probaby admonishing the patient for non compliance. I liken it somewhat to treating someone who is banging their head against a brick wall, by prescribing headache tablets and treating the cuts and bruises. This certainly keeps the medical establishment busy. Everyone does well apart from the patient. Better, in my opinion, to suggest that the patient stops banging their head against a brick wall and maybe the pain will go away. Then the cuts and bruises will slowly heal. Eat a good diet and do some suitable exercise and it might heal a bit quicker.
Using this analogy, the patient is probably told that the reason he is in pain is because he isn’t banging his head fast enough ….. the equivalent of not eating enough fibre, too few carbs, too much fat, and nottaking enough drugs. It would be funny if the impications weren’t quite so serious.
Personally I am fearful that long term use of statins – by which I mean 30 or 40 years, by 10 of millions of people, will lead to horrific consequences: I really don’t think the widespread impact these drugs have on every cell of the human body have been fully understood, or studied, with increased cancer, liver damage, problems with cognitive function and mucle damage just some of the potential side effects. Not to mention the better use to which the money and effort invested in prescribing cholesterol lowering drugs and monitoring cholesterol numbers could be put to.
Paul.
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Sadly telling people “eat better and exercise more” is not much motivation for the general public….as they know it but just won’t do it. Then again with advice like “eat low fat” and you need more fiber from grains, most aren’t even getting healthy advice. As long as there is always a “quick fix” option in a pill, most people will just take the route of less resistance. More education and understanding of what is really going on is needed, sadly our mainstream medical system is not setup for that nor are we even getting our info from the right places or holding onto old gossip as truth such as “sat fat is bad” and “cholesterol is evil”.
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Yes, I meant to add, for most people to journey to poor health, such as metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes (type 2) is quite a long one. Its unrealistic to expect an improved diet and exercise to undo 25 years of damage (some might say self inflcited) overnoight. There are no magic bullets either.
The first thing to do is to stop making the situation, and to try to deal with the underlying problems. Easier said than done. Quite how wholegrains came to be referred to as healthy is beying me, or low GI for that matter. Maybe someone had a rathe rmacabre sense of humour. My rule of thumb is to ask a doctor for some healthy eating advice and then do the exact opposite. This seems to work quite well.
Paul.
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Sorry for the typos above!
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Want to increase sales of a drug?
Invent a problem…that can only be solved by your product.
Thanks Astra-Zaneca for caring about my health
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Well you convinced me Mike. I have always been against statins but I guess I do need them!
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Geeze Mike,
You’re right to be pissed about this one!
Anyone ever heard of CoQ10? The makers of statin drugs don’t want you talking about it? Here’s why…
1. Every cell in your body requires CoQ10 to power it…
2. You heart requires 10 times the amount of CoQ10 as any other part of your body (second is your brain)…
3. At age 20, your production of this coenzyme slows… and by age 80 is 65% lower!
Guess what?
Statins kill people and hurt many more by severely weakening their hearts (and brains)! The method by which statin drugs lower cholesterol has the unfortunate side effect of lowering levels of the vital nutrient CoQ10…
Dr. Peter Langosjoen, a world renowned cardiologist, reports that in his practice of 17 years in Tyler, Texas he “has seen a frightening increase in heart failure from statin use. In the last five years, statins have become stronger, are being
prescribed in reckless abandon in the elderly and in patients with “normal†cholesterol levels.â€Â
And the people going “dumb” after taking statins? Hmmm… naturally lowering levels of CoQ10 with age + drugs that reduce it more + your brain being the second most “CoQ10 hungry” organ in your body = “getting dumb”!
On the flipside supplementing with CoQ10 slashes cholesterol, increases heart health, has shown promising effects on alzheimers and other mental diseases, and has even been used to treat HIV patients to strengthen their immune system and lengthen the time it takes to develop full blown AIDs!
My advice? Follow Mike’s tips — take fish oil and CoQ10 for cholesterol and all that — and stay the H*LL away from statins!
What do you think Mike?
Later
Caleb
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I wrote about this Jupiter study and the problems with it and maybe more importantly the reporting of it. It’s amazing and pathetic.
Tony
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DR – so true…I’m working on a patented drug to get rid of that pesky breathing issue we all put up with daily…such a hastle…thinking of naming it oxygen inhaling syndrome….
SOG – Glad I could help out the stock holders of some pharma company
Caleb – heard about CoQ10, but to be honest most people who I have heard preach it are usually vegetarian or anti red-meat based…and I found this tidbit:
Yumm…..meat to the rescue….again! Food, the only drug we need (but if we want to spend money on supplements, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant based ones are the top ones to start with)
Tony – good stuff, glad we are all seeing through the insanity out there.
Also a tidbit is about too low cholesterol……from the Mayo Clinic site:
I also remember Dr Eades having an interesting chart about mortality rate and cholesterol levels from Protein Power Lifeplan book. Basically it was a U shaped…but most people see the 2nd half of the U showing increased risks of death as cholesterol went about 240…..you don’t see the first half of the U where death increased (mainly from suicide/depression I think) when cholesterol was under 160? (around there from what I remember off the top of my head). Too low is just as risky as too high! Don’t see any statin people brining that up do we?
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The very top of the list, in my humble opinion, are probiotics.
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Mike-
I could not agree more both with you and most of the posts above me – if people practiced a healthy balanced life style and got some exercise, the drug companies’ profits would tumble.
Also, In terms of the mass media, it is scary because the whole picture is rarely revealed, and most people read a headline and decide they are now at risk for whatever disease X and demand to be put on Y drug..
With the case of statins, the research coming out is really quite exciting. the fact that the relationship between the C-reactive protein, LDL and heart disease is producing new insights into both indicators of HD risk and possible correlation is wonderful.
But what is not wonderful is articles that don’t give the whole picture – the new studies coming out do not show that millions should be put on statins, just that there is evidence that further supports the connection and possible correlation between high levels of C-protein and heart disease, and that testing for high levels of C-protein can be beneficial to evaluating one’s risk of HD even without high cholesterol.
Thank you for a very interesting article. If only people would take more initiative in their own health and take a little time to understand for themselves the reality of what the read.
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Christoph – Yes probiotics are key to gut health….although I eating more cultured veggies and kefir is probably more effective in delivering bacteria….most real food sources are usually 100x more effective than supplements alone…nature always seems to have a perfect delivery system. That and you never know the quality of bacteria you are getting through supplements…having lots of dead good bacteria is not going to do much.
JP – I really wish everyone took more initiative for their health. Or at least were getting all the right information from the sources they do trust.
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“That and you never know the quality of bacteria you are getting through supplements…having lots of dead good bacteria is not going to do much.”
Well formulated properly manufactured (GNP) probiotic supplements are so effective they are becoming standard medical practice covered by national health programs through much of Europe, prescribed alongside antibiotics. I support this practice and would like to see it adopted in North America.
Many many people will tell you that the right brand of probiotics alleviates numerous problems in a very real and noticeable physical sense.
Of course, food sources of beneficial bacteria are awesome too, but good probiotics are one supplement I feel justifies their cost.
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Mike, what are your thoughts on Diovan (Valsartan) and the other angiotensin II receptor antagonists (a.k.a. angiotensin receptor blockers or simply “sartans”)?
I have a family member who just started it and I was thinking about your statin article. Apparently the sartans are associated with diminished Alzheimer’s, which is good, but aside from that, I know almost nothing.
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Christoph – That is a bit over my pay grade to answer that one, I don’t know much about it but obviously you can see I am not a fan of drugs in general. (unless immediately needed for lifesaving reasons) I’m sure lots of pharma companies are trying to find “other” things their drugs do to help out with….so they can sell more in a down economy, after all they need to make their stock holders happy….and they are a business at heart.
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Thanks for replying, Mike.
I thought it was a long shot that you’d have researched sartans as I think it’s a newer class, or less commonly prescribed anyway. When my family member told me the drug he was on its the first I’d heard of it. I saw the medical literature, but was wondering if you’d had any experience or thoughts from a health/fitness perspective.
I don’t think the drug is designed to reduce Alzheimer’s (I probably worded that badly: I think they meant that unlike statins, it doesn’t increase the risk of getting it), but hopefully it is a better class of drug for his sake.
He was telling me about how he felt better when following Harvey Diamond’s “Fit for Life” approach ages ago, but he couldn’t maintain the program. I know he doesn’t eat healthy so I was telling him about IF and some of the health benefits. I was hoping he’d be motivated enough to check out the Warrior Diet if only because of Harvey Diamond’s forward and his past experiences.
However, he kept on saying to me over and over again how he lacks any discipline around his diet and seemed to have quite hypnotized himself that any change involving self-control was impossible. He understood what I was saying, even how people don’t wake up hungry and extending the fast period gradually is no big deal.
He kept on saying over and over again how he could skip eating during the day if he had to, but his “problem” was eating at night. Plus how he’d eat out of control once he started eating whenever that was.
I said, yes, exactly, these are the problems that daily intermittent fasting solves because you’re looking at it the wrong way, but that didn’t help much.
Fast-5, while it doesn’t give enough emphasis on WHAT to eat nor any at all on how to exercise, does have a good description of extending that daily fast incrementally and how this makes it easier to control hunger. I found its explanation of the difference between “limbic” and “somatic” hunger most helpful and totally accurate in my case. It’s the reason this is working for me.
I sent that to my family member because it’s a short read and am hoping for the best. No, I don’t necessarily want to evangelize everyone to IF despite your great post on how everyone should eat this way! But he’s someone I love and it pains me — more so even than the physical aspects — to hear him talk about how impossible it is to make any changes.
It is possible! If he’d stop telling himself it wasn’t. The fact is, my eating and waistline was more out of control than his, but I kept an open mind and am benefiting from it.
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Christoph – ” to hear him talk about how impossible it is to make any changes. It is possible! If he’d stop telling himself it wasn’t. ” Bingo…..that’s why I like the IF approach, shows that we don’t have to be obsessed over food…and little victories can happen…and lead to lasting results. But if he says he can’t, then he is correct 100% of the time and will just to self-sabotaging himself over time. Maybe time for some tough love….if you stop listening to his excuses, maybe he will stop saying them. Excuses have to go, and he doesn’t own anything…he doesn’t own eating issues…he just experiences them….he needs to get rid of the attachment first, they are not a part of him…and they are not a part of the present moment.
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[...] here’s an article from The IF Life about a new research that tries to convince us that we all need drugs. Why is this the other extreme? Because a lot of people hope to find a quick external solution [...]
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trying to stop cholesterol production (with statins)? probably not such a good idea. the body is going to make cholesterol anyways because it’s needed in so many ways. the more important thing is probably what happens to those various circulating lipoproteins through oxidation or inflammation and whatever else can happen to them. why can’t we all just be healthy?
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