Stayin' alive with statins?
High cholesterol in the blood is the health issue of the 21st century. Being told this is like a dagger in the chest straight to the heart. It is a death sentence synonymous with heart attack and stroke (brain attack). Fortunately, we have cholesterol-lowering medications, of which the most popular is the group called statins. Thanks to the different drug companies that have the heart to manufacture them, and to most doctors who agree as they were led to believe.
If hypercholesterolemia spells disaster, we should get to know it better. Dr. Mary Enig defines cholesterol as a high molecular weight alcohol. It is not a fat and it doesn’t have calories. Dietary cholesterol comes mostly from breast milk, regular whole milk, egg yolk, and animal tissues. For cholesterol to be absorbed in the intestine, however, it would hitchhike with a chylomicron (a fat and protein combination or lipoprotein). It flows to the lymphatic system, enters the bloodstream via the left subclavian vein (near your left collar bone or clavicle), then finds its way into the liver. Now, you know.
If you don’t eat cholesterol-rich food, what happens? The body would manufacture its much-needed 3,000 to 4,000 mg. daily requirement. The liver is the major contributor at 95 percent, but it would overshoot production without cholesterol in the diet which acts as negative feedback. All cholesterol is made from the basic molecule called acetyl CoA, which comes from the metabolism of carbohydrate, metabolism of extra protein, and metabolism of fat.
Why The Body Needs Cholesterol
If cholesterol is bad, why would the body synthesize it? If your health care provider hasn’t told you the merits of pure unoxidized cholesterol from the above sources, you better think twice. Yes, the body makes it for many reasons. According to Dr. Enig, infants need it for proper brain development, as a raw material for scar formation (wound healing) and maintaining the proper rigidity and flexibility of cell membranes. With one billion cells replaced per hour, the body needs it round the clock. Chris Masterjohn further adds that cholesterol boosts memory and mental performance, helps in digestion as it is used by the liver to make bile acids, and, as precursor of vitamin D, builds strong bones. Take note, all steroid hormones are derived from cholesterol. These are mineralocorticoids that regulate sodium and blood pressure, glucocorticoids that regulate blood sugar, and sex hormones (progesterone, estrogen, testosterone) that maintain athletic performance, libido, muscle mass, and more. As an electron donor, it acts as an antioxidant.
Why would doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering medications? Dr. Enig and Sally Fallon call hypercholesterolemia an invented disease, a problem that emerged when health professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood. Who suffers from this invention? Peruse the medical literature of 30-35 years ago and you’ll get the following answer: any middle-aged man whose cholesterol level is over 240 mg./dL with other risk factors such as smoking and overweight. After the Cholesterol Consensus Conference in 1984, the parameters changed; anyone with cholesterol over 200 could receive the dreaded diagnosis and a prescription for pills. That number has been moved down to 180.
If you have had a heart attack, you must take cholesterol-lowering medications, along with a boring low-fat diet even if your cholesterol is already very low (less than 150 mg./dL) after all, you have committed the sin of having a heart attack. But why wait until you have a heart attack? Now that the newest class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins, has become a bonanza of profits for Big Pharma, new cholesterol guidelines are promoted, and new junk theories about cholesterol’s relationship to various diseases are being manufactured, to maximize the profit-potential of these drugs by classifying nearly every member of society as a candidate for drug therapy, including children. These statins, sold under a variety of names, include Lipitor (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin), and Crestor (rosuvastatin).
Great Promise For Statin Drugs
Statin drugs entered the market with great promise. They have no immediate side effects unlike the earlier class of medications that prevented the absorption of cholesterol. They were consistently effective in lowering cholesterol levels by 50 points or more. How? By blocking the enzyme HMG Co-A reductase (hydroxymethyl glutaric acid-CoA reductase) which is responsible for transforming HMG to mevalonate. Mevalonate is the parent compound that transforms into several important intermediary substances before it finally becomes cholesterol. Herein lies the potential for numerous side effects, because these intermediate substances have important biochemical functions in their own right.
Co-enzyme Q 10, one of the intermediary substances, provides energy to cells and maintains membrane integrity so critical to nerve conduction and muscle integrity. It is vital in the formation of elastin and collagen; otherwise, you develop muscle wasting which manifests as weakness, severe back pain, heart failure (the heart is a muscle!), neuropathy, and inflammation of tendons and ligaments. Dolichols, on the other hand, direct various proteins, ensuring that cells respond correctly to genetically-programmed instruction. Squalene, which has anti-cancer effects, is also blocked. Other untoward effects include cognitive impairment, global transient amnesia, dizziness, pancreatic rot, depression, and poor libido.
What is the science behind the endorsement of statins?
In 1948, the Framingham Heart Study, under the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), embarked on an ambitious project in health research. Considered the most famous, largest, and often-cited studies in support of the cholesterol hypothesis, it is still ongoing today. One of the findings of the Framingham study was, for every 1 mg./dL decrease in cholesterol in people over 47 years, there was a corresponding 11-percent increase in heart disease risk. Yet a joint statement of the American Heart Association and the NHLBI wrote the precise opposite! Again in the Framingham Diet Study, then Director Dr. William B. Kannel concluded in 1960 that a diet rich in cholesterol and fat leads to coronary heart disease. Their statistician Dr. Tavia Gordon, however, discovered the raw data in 1970, collated it, and found a conclusion to the contrary. But Dr. Kannel won’t rectify the error. Twenty two years later, then director Dr. Edward P. Castelli published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “In Framingham, Massachusetts, the people who ate the most cholesterol, saturated fat, and calories weighed the least, and were the most physically active!” It was incriminating hence it didn’t resonate to the four corners of the Planet Earth.
Meanwhile, the Big Pharma designed and funded research geared towards perpetuating the usefulness of statins. One was the Jupiter research, which Dr. Michael Eades stated was stopped in the middle of the project because “the group on rosuvastatin (Crestor) developed diabetes during the trial at a significantly higher rate than did those on placebo (truth versus hype in the Jupiter study).”
No Decrease In Mortality
Dr. Eades, sums it up thus, “Placebo-controlled studies (the only kind that matters) have shown that statins provide no decrease in all-cause mortality (the only statistic that really counts) in women of any age and men over 65, whether they’ve ever had a heart attack or not. The only group of people for whom statins have shown any benefit in terms of a decrease in all-cause mortality is men under the age of 65 who have already had a heart attack. And even in these men, the decrease in all-cause mortality is minuscule.
As Dr. Uffe Ravnskov emphasized, most quoted heart disease risk improvements (some as high as 36 percent) are relative figures. In absolute terms, it is less than two percent. Some authorities, therefore, don’t even think the expense of statins is worth the tiny risk reduction. John Carey (BusinessWeek, 28 Jan. 2008) did the math and found out “for every 100 people taking this statin (Lipitor) for three years and three months, only one person is spared a heart attack.”
For consumers who cannot afford these medications or have concerns about the unwanted side effects, there is hope. Dr. Ravnskov (The Cholesterol Myths) reminds us of the risks for stroke: smoking, stress, sedentary lifestyle, overweight, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension.
Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon, on the other hand, have this food for thought: Trans fats (vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated oil, margarine) and oxidized cholesterol in reduced-fat and powdered milk cause inflammation of blood vessels, creating potential sites of rupture. Refined sugars stimulate clumping of blood platelets, blocking very small arteries. Cod liver oil provides anti-inflammatory vitamin A, vitamin D, and EPA. Saturated fats encourage the production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. They increase the good HDL-cholesterol and non-atherogenic fluffy type LDL-cholesterol. Copper, especially from liver, prevents clot formation and inflammation in the arteries. Coconut oil protects against bacteria and viruses that can lead to inflammation in the artery.
By the way, if you read the fine print on statin drug literature, it says: “This statin has not been determined to prevent heart disease, heart attacks or strokes.”
