Statin

Jun

2019

Real Cholesterol Statistics Behind Statin Drugs

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.

Aug

2014

Cholesterol and Sugar

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

(PharmacistBen) A very strange cultural myth has somehow become health dogma (defined as an authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolute truth) despite little definitive evidence to support it. A biochemically ignorant speculation and hypothesis (experiment) that many of us have bought into is that you can poison your body and your body’s cholesterol manufacturing system with cholesterol lowering drugs, and somehow be the better for it.

By David-i98 via Wikipedia Commons

This is very important as millions of Americans (an astounding 1 out 8 or 9 Americans) are on one or another. One out of every 4 adults over the age of 45 is on a statin drug. This, despite the fact, that there are hundreds of studies demonstrating their toxicity and relationship to all kinds of health issues ranging from muscle pain to brain and memory problems. Stain drugs have even been linked to diabetes and cancer; two of top three the leading causes of death.

Cholesterol control is best thought of as sugar control. There’s a reason why diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol go hand in hand. But the thing about diabetes is that the designation of it (or the determination of it) is arbitrary. That’s right! Whether or not you’re officially considered a diabetic is arbitrarily determined by the magic of the medical model and the black magicians who come up with so-called diagnostic standards.

According to the American Diabetes Association, there are three main tests that determine whether or not you’re a diabetic. The A1C test measures blood glucose as an average over the course 2 to 3 months. You’re considered a diabetic if you’re A1C score is greater than 6.5%. The Fasting Blood Glucose test is the second test doctors use to assess diabetes. As the name implies, you have to fast for at least 8 hours before this test, and you’re considered a diabetic if your blood glucose is over 126 mg per dl of blood (which works out to about a teaspoonful of glucose for the entire gallon or so of blood that circulates in the average human body). The third test is called the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, and that measures blood sugar before and after you drink a super sweet glucose drink. If your blood sugar is over 200 after you take an oral glucose tolerance test, the doctor will pronounce you officially a diabetic.

The problem with these tests is no one really knows just exactly what a healthy or appropriate blood sugar should be. All of these numbers and determinations are based on bell curves, reference values, and statistics. Human beings are individuals. To take care of our health, we have to recognize our specific, individual biochemical nature. To superimpose statistics and bell curves on top of individuals is BAD SCIENCE.

Does it make sense to anyone that if your fasting blood sugar is recorded as 125 mg per dl, you are non-diabetic, but if you’re at 126, all of a sudden you have a disease? If you’re at 125, you can go about your business as usual because you’re healthy. No, our blood sugar is still way too high, and just because the medical model hasn’t officially pronounced us diseased, our sugar chemistry is definitely wacked, and we are most assuredly not healthy.

Pretty much all adults (or at least those who are subsisting on the SAD) can assume that blood sugar control is not good. Dysglycemia is part and parcel of our modern lifestyle and of the aging process. A sure sign that your blood sugar is starting to get thrown off is a pot belly. Do you know ANYONE who doesn’t have a little pooch going on? How many people are able to say their gut is the same size when they’re 40 as when they are 20? High blood pressure is another dysglycemic red flag and, most assuredly, so is elevated blood fats and cholesterol.

Think cholesterol and blood fats, think blood sugar. The best way to lower your cholesterol naturally is to lower blood sugar by eating less food that spikes blood sugar and by eating less food in general. Dysglycemia is a food and eating health issue; it’s not a drug issue. Because elevated blood cholesterol is about dysglycemia, if you want to lower your blood cholesterol, change the way you eat: more protein and less sugar. And EAT MORE FAT, and EAT MORE CHOLESTEROL!! (I know this is contrary to all the conventional crapola that you hear from mainstream lobbyist groups, but they care more about your money than your health.) Organizations (really, big business corporations) like the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have presided over the biggest increases in heart disease and diabetes IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. When, in fact, the more cholesterol you eat, the less cholesterol your body makes! In other words, cholesterol-containing foods are nature’s non-toxic, healthy statin drugs. Tell that to the next boneheaded medical doctor who warns that you better start taking a toxin that poisons the liver cells so they can’t produce this incredibly important biomolecule!

In addition to consuming cholesterol, using sugar-metabolizing supplements can help. The Chromium and Vanadium in the product Sweet Eaze can help lower blood sugar and can lower blood cholesterol. The Sweet Eaze is like a natural statin drug without the drug toxicity. The B-vitamins are incredibly important for blood sugar metabolism. Beyond Tangy Tangerine is loaded with the B-vitamins. If you’re a diabetic (and remember we all are to some extent), you would be very wise to use some BTT after all sweets as well as starchy meals (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc.). Thiamine is especially important for lowering blood sugar. Niacin is one of the most critical of all nutrients for helping the body process sugar. And not coincidentally, niacin is one of the most important nutrients for the liver, and is just as effective at lowering cholesterol as statin drugs. You’ll get a good dose of niacin in the Beyond Tangy Tangerine, but if you’re seriously concerned about elevated blood cholesterol, you might want to add in a 100mg daily dose of time-release niacin too.

Jun

2013

Most Notorious of Statin Induced Symptoms

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans taking a statin drug you should know that yet another study was released yesterday, this one published online in the venerable Journal of the American Medical Association, implicating these best-selling billion-dollar babies in the development of muscle weakness and pain.

By Ed Yourdon (Flickr: Jogging couple) via Wikimedia Commons

Apparently, according to the study, which analyzed data gleaned from the health records of San Antonio-based beneficiaries (i.e. victims) of the U.S military health care system, statin drug use is associated with an “increased likelihood of diagnosis of musculoskeletal conditions”. In English, that means that if you’re on statins your likely to mess up your muscles.

Now if anyone is surprised by this kind of finding which mimics the results found many other studies and corroborates the information on the drug company own insert that’s included in all statin drug packages, they’re clearly not paying attention to biochemistry, medicinal mechanisms or for that matter the news. Even mainstream media outlets like Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/05/statins-linked-to-muscle-pain-sprains/ and CNN http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/statin-side-effects/MY00205.html have weighed in on this most notorious of statin induced symptoms. At this point, a quarter century after their release on an unsuspecting and unfortunately sometimes gullible public, no medical practioner worth his salt can plead ignorance to the muscle pain and weakness that is clearly associated with long-term statin use.

Now when most of us think of muscles we tend to think of biceps, triceps, quadriceps and other body structures connected to the skeleton, i.e. what is generally referred to as the musculoskeletal system. What is often forgotten however, is the fact that that one of the largest, strongest and certainly the most important muscles in the body is … the heart!

How ironic that a drug that is a supposed to be used to protect against cardiovascular disease boasts as a primary side effect toxicity to the heart, the very organ the poison (medicine) is supposed be treating! What’s even worse, last month in an article published on the website Medical New Today, researchers from the British Medical Journal reported on evidence that statin use can increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. And the most notable system affected by this serious life-threatening disease? You guessed it, the heart. Again the supposed structure that statin drugs are supposed to be supporting.

Look, it’s not complicated: the human body cannot function in a healthy fashion unless it can make cholesterol and a lot of it. This important raw material for hormones and cells is arguably the most critical chemical in the body and the molecule that singularly distinguishes animal life from plant life. Put another way, cholesterol is the quintessential molecule of animal life. If you mess around with the body’s ability to make this stuff you are playing with fire and the longer you poison cholesterol manufacturing bio-machinery the more likely you are going to be to be dealing with toxicity and side effects.

If you’re concerned about cardiovascular disease or if you’ve had a heart attack and want to prevent another one there are numerous non-toxic, non-pharmaceutical strategies that you can use to keep yourself out of the cardiologist’s office and out from under his knife. Magnesium Glycinate, Essential Fatty Acids, Taurine, Arginine and Sulfur (MSM) are just a few gentle, benign and multi-functional nutritional supplements that you can use to keep heart healthy and strong. And Niacin is a great supplement that can reduce cholesterol production just as effectively as any statin drug without the side effects. Perhaps the most important cardiovascular health strategy is to stay away from insulin spiking foods. Excess ingestion bread, pasta cereal, cakes candies fruits and fruit juices and many other mainstays of the Standard American Diet (SAD) are a sure fire way to mess up your heart and circulatory system. Staying off of these foods is way better heart-healthy strategy than taking a poison anti- cholesterol drug. You won’t have to worry about side effects and you’ll lose weight too. You’re likely to lower your blood pressure and increase your longevity to boot. And unlike the deadly drugs dispensed by your doctor you’ll actually drop your risk diabetes.

Apr

2013

Statin: Pain, Digestive Distress & Liver Damage?

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Statin drugs are among the best selling drugs in the world. They were initially approved by the FDA for lowering the cholesterol of patients who had a history of heart problems. Today their use for “off label indications,” conditions the drug was not originally approved for, are skyrocketing – and statins are used as cholesterol-lowering drugs for just about everyone.

The American College of Physicians suggests that regardless of cholesterol levels, most diabetics should be taking statins. Several years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics raised eyebrows by concluding that indirect evidence suggests children with higher levels of cholesterol need statins. Now, scientists at the University of Edinburgh are initiating a study to discover if statins can be used to prevent pre-eclampsia, a rare but severe heart disease that occurs in pregnant woman.

Statin drugs work by suppressing an incredibly important chemical manufacturing process, the HMG CoA Reductase system, that includes cholesterol as an end product. By inhibiting this system, blood cholesterol levels are reduced, but levels of several other compounds needed by the body are also lowered. The reason? The HMGA CoA Reductase system also produces essential fats, steroid hormone, vitamin precursors and the critical vitamin-like substance CoQ-10.

Additionally, cholesterol itself is one of the most vital chemicals in the entire body. It’s a fundamental parent compound to a wide array of biochemical offspring that support all of our body’s functions.

Lastly, the well-documented toxic effects of statin use include muscle pain, digestive distress and liver damage, all of which are the inevitable result of suppression and manipulation of vital biochemical processes.

As always, the appropriate response to a breakdown in the biochemistry of the body, whether it involves pain, inflammation or elevated cholesterol, is to pay attention to symptoms of the breakdown and begin the appropriate medical detective work to understand what the body needs to repair itself. Elevations in cholesterol are almost always at least partially the result of poor blood sugar control. All patients with elevated cholesterol should greatly reduce refined flour and sugary foods. This will be easier if they supplement their diet with protein sources such as whey, hemp, peas or brazil nuts. If they eat any sugary foods at all, they should be using sugar-metabolizing nutrients that improve sugar metabolism.

The entire B-complex is especially important, as are the minerals Zinc, Magnesium, Chromium and Vanadium.
Unlike pharmaceutical intervention, which is replete with toxic side effects, proper nutrition allows you to accomplish better results and provides multiple side benefits to overall improvement in health and wellness.

“Safe drugs” is an oxymoron, because there is always toxicity inherent in the way drugs work. Furthermore, the actions of suppression and inhibition of natural processes in the body make additional side effects inevitable. No matter what we are trying to treat, nutritional, non-toxic and healthful options should always be explored and pharmaceutical, toxic intervention only used as a last resort.

Dec

2011

More on Cholesterol and Hardening of the Arteries

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Are you on a statin drug? Is your doctor obsessed with your HDL or LDL statistics? Are you concerned about heart disease.

If you answered yes to any of the above you’re gonna want to read this post about cholesterol and the silliness around cholesterol-mania; this crazy idea that lowering cholesterol levels by poisoning the liver is somehow an appropriate strategy for reducing the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Lowering cholesterol production in the liver pharmacologically is a biochemically ignorant health strategy. There are however, some very effective strategies, nutritional strategies that can very effectively reduce the risks of atherosclerosis that is hardening of the arteries. And by the way atherosclerosis doesn’t just cause heart problems.

All the arteries in the body can become sclerotic, which simply means hardened. So sclerosis is clearly a health issue and the fact that cholesterol is present in the hardened patched inside the arteries is not evidence that cholesterol is the cause or that lowering cholesterol manufacturing in the liver is appropriate strategy. However there are some very effective nutritional strategies for reducing atherosclerosis and unlike the biochemical lunacy that is behind the use of the stating drugs, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, chromium, lowering blood sugar levels, lowering insulin.

There are literally dozens of different ways you can keep your heart healthy without touching a drug, going to a doctor, needing health insurance help or any other mainstream medical technique we’re told we have to do. In the world of nutrition when we talk about some of these nutrients, one of the most important facets is this feature that supplements have that makes them useful in a whole variety of ways. You know Vitamin C helps with skin and insulin and the liver and the brain and the adrenal glands etc. Calcium for bones and blood pressure and the heart and the brain and perhaps no more nutrient is as significant as magnesium which in addition to being calcium’s partner and involved in over 300 different chemical reactions in the body is also one of the most common nutritional deficiencies.

The bottom line is: If your doctor has “ordered” you to be on a statin on some other cholesterol lowering drug, you do have options, nutritional non-toxic alternative that you may want to consider.