By Ben Fuchs | PharmacistBen
What are the real cholesterol statistics behind statin drugs? While cholesterol is present in blocked arteries, it is not a cause of heart disease any more than flies buzzing around a garbage heap are responsible for the rotting refuse. But if you believe the notion that high cholesterol is a heart health challenge, that’s understandable and you’re in good company. Over 15 million Americans are on Cholesterol lowering drugs and the doctors at the National Institute of Health believe that another 20 million people should be on them, but aren’t. From consumer publications to television and radio advertising to internet websites, we find the medical “memescape” saturated with the misguided message that cholesterol is the cause of coronary artery disease and statin drugs are the savior that will protect humanity from the horrors of heart attacks.
According to the website “the peoplespharmacy.com“, current guidelines from heart experts insist that virtually every man over the age of 63 and every woman over 70 should be on statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs, regardless of risk factors. Based on a study published in the May 2017 New England Journal of Medicine, which found that statin drug receiving patients were 1.2 percent less likely to have a heart attack than those on placebo, Dr. Salim Yusef, M.D., D.Phil., the study’s lead investigator and professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada said “The study shows that we should be expanding whom we treat with statins.” He said, “Statins are effective and safe for anyone with an intermediate risk factor and people over the age of 55.”
Don’t fall for it! All drugs are by definition poisons. There are, by definition, no safe poisons. Statistics are numbers and susceptible to manipulation and interpretation. Statins, like all drugs, are poisons; they have to be detoxified by the liver, where they cost the body its precious nutritional resources, and that’s a fact.
According to Dr. David Diamond, a professor of molecular pharmacology at the University of South Florida, expert in cardiovascular disease, Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, it is a “statistical deception” that has been used to make innocent victims and duped doctors believe claims about statin drug’s effectiveness.
The supposed benefits of statins are based on a sneaky little statistical strategy called “relative risk reduction” which quote, “amplifies the trivial beneficial effects of statins,” according to Diamond and Ravnskov. This little drug company’s statistical trick works like this: The chance of having a heart attack over a 5 year period without taking statins is 2%. By taking statin drugs, users reduce that risk from 2% to 1%. The “relative risk reduction” is the percentage difference between using a statin drug (1%) and not using it (2%). Since a 1% risk reduction is half of 2%, they claim that statin drugs reduce heart attacks by a 50% reduction in risk. So, you might be told that a statin drug will reduce your risk of having a heart attack by 50%, when the actual reduction in risk is from 2 out of a hundred, to 1 out of a hundred. This practice involves some spurious sophistry that may sell drugs and persuade physicians into promoting them, but it does NOT help their patients.
Doctors Diamond and Ravnskov’s analysis examined 2 separate studies:
In one, called Jupiter Trial, the public and doctors were told of an actual reduction in heart attacks that was less than 1 percentage point but was somehow statistically manipulated to magically become a 54 percent reduction.
In another, the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial-Lipid Lowering Arm (ASCOT-LLA), a 1.1. percent improvement in patient outcomes with Lipitor. When presented to the public via medical journal advertising, this percentage was magically (i.e statistically) transformed to become a 36 percent cut in the risk of having a heart attack.
Here’s all you need to know about the flawed cholesterol hypothesis and statin-based prevention: While clearly statin drugs can suppress the body’s production of this unbelievably important molecule, which is very likely the most functional and important chemical in the body, statin drug’s benefits for preventing heart disease, if there are any, are negligible at best.
The statistical sophistry of statin-mania is why you have to be careful with clinical claims and why we have to use common sense: drugs are foreign to the body; they are poisons and must be detoxified. That is, pharmaceuticals are toxins and only a drug company, statistician or a doctor can somehow believe that number crunching is more important and health-relevant the biochemical logic.
If you’re dead set on lowering your cholesterol with pills, use Essential Fatty Acid supplements instead of statins. EFAs and their derivatives act like natural statin drugs, employing the same cholesterol-lowering mechanism as the synthetic pharmaceuticals, but without the side effects. In fact, instead of side effects, you’ll get side benefits and you may be able to reduce your dose of other drugs. According to researchers, writing in the October 2008 edition of the journal Lipids in Health and Disease, essential fatty acids can act like blood thinners, diuretics, anti-hypertensives, and ACE inhibitor drugs. According to the authors of the same article, they can have anti-inflammatory anti-arrhythmic benefits too. And, EFA’s benefit more than the cardiovascular system. Using Omega 3 and Omega 6 supplements can improve dry skin, eczema and acne, among other skin conditions, while improving post-surgical healing, building bones and helping support mental functioning, memory and mood.
Did you know that HDL and LDL are NOT cholesterol? Did you know that there are no biochemical entities called good cholesterol or bad cholesterol? And, did you know that cholesterol is an incredibly important biological chemical, maybe the most important in the body and to this day, there has been no definitive link established between cholesterol in the blood and heart disease?
The good news is that as our understandings around improve, so can our overall mortality. In a study of almost 43,000 men that was published in the journal “Circulation” it was found that men who adopted all of the low-risk behaviors were 87 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease during the study period compared to men who adopted none of the behaviors. Furthermore researchers estimated that 62 percent of all “coronary events” that occurred during the study period may have been prevented if all members of the study population adopted the lifestyle factors. Now folks we don’t need research and we don’t need studies to prove to us that the health of the heart as with the health of the body can be enhanced by lifestyle choices. That means exercise, watching what we eat, no smoking, relaxation and of course nutritional supplementation. With an emphasis on nutritional supplementation! Indeed, there’s no organ system in the body that has evidenced the powers of nutritional supplementation more than the cardiovascular system. You want some tips for your ticker? OK well, here ya’ go! There’s probably no more important group of nutrients for your heart than the B-complex. Now probably most of you have heard about the B-complex, but here’s a couple of things you probably didn’t know. You never want to take individual B vitamins without taking the group. The B-complex is, as the name implies a complex. They work together. While sometimes it’s instructive to talk about each of the B-vitamins and their roles individually, it important to never lose track of the fact that they appear in nature together, and they work together. They each support each other. So if , for example you want to work with blood fats, triglycerides and cholesterol and your taking Vitamin B3, niacin which has been shown to have some dramatic effects on lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need Vitamins B1 Thiamine, Folic acid and Vitamin B12 and Vitamin B5 among others of the of the B complex. They all work together as a team. Same idea if you’re taking Vitamin B12 for energy or as anti depressant or Vitamin B5 for treating acne. Each component of the complex acts to support each of the other components. And here’ another point to keep in mind. When your body attempts to excrete a particular B-vitamin it tends to do it in a complex. So if, for example, you’re taking Vitamin B3 for your triglycerides, when your body excretes the B#, it will do it with any B1, B2, B5, B12 etc that’s in the system. If you’re not taking additional amounts of these vitamins, you can actually cause deficiencies. So make sure you’re taking the entire B-complex. And taking it in generous amounts. It’s water soluble so you’re gonna be urinating out what’s not used right away, so you’re levels may not be where you need them to be if you’re only taking a B-vitamin pill once or twice a day. That’s why I like my patients to be using B-complex powders and liquids that can be sipped on throughout the day. We want to be careful about using nutrients like we use pharmaceuticals. Oh you have arthritis, take niacin. Menstrual cramps take B6, you’re depressed take B12. That’s called allopathic nutrition and it’s just another way we try to monetize good nutrition. Sure Thiamin, Vitamin B1 helps with insulin and blood sugar. Riboflavin, Vitamin B2 deficiency is associated with migraine headaches. B6, pantothenic acid is great for stabilizing excess skin oils, B6 is well known for helping woman who are experiencing female problems, be they estrogenic cancers, premenstrual breakout or morning sickness. And of course the well documented link between mood and energy levels and Vitamin B12. But remember friends, they’re all working together as a complex and they are excreted together as a complex. And they are found in nature as a complex. So, you want to make sure, even if you’re taking high doses of one B-vitamin for a specific reason, that you’re taking generous amount of the entire complex.
This interesting electric phenomenon has been exploited by computer engineers for its information storing properties (as always electricity equals information), And now its being explored as a way to manipulate the cholesterol adhering properties of artery walls. It seems that cholesterol also has an electric nature and this may be one of the reasons it “sticks” to arteries. And this is what has cardiovascular researchers so excited. Scientists in Portugal are reporting in this month’s version of Advanced Functional Materials that amino acids in the aorta, the heart’s most important artery, are also potentially electric and it is believed that this may impact the of the formation of aortic cholesterol plaques. Considering that plaque formation and hardening of the arteries are the leading cause of heart disease and death, these findings may lead to important advances in cardiovascular health. In fact, some researchers believe that a future generation of cardiovascular drugs may work by changing the electric properties of the vessels of the heart, rendering them inhospitable to cholesterol “sticking”. According to Jiangsu Li a scientist at the University of Washington, it’s possible that “drugs of the future could have a certain electric charge that could be transferred to an artery wall.”
