NEW STUDY ON THE DANGERS OF STATINS
THE MOST COMMON DRUGS TAKEN FOR HIGH CHOLESTEROL
CAUSE THE VERY PROBLEMS THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO PREVENT
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"The epidemic of heart failure and atherosclerosis that plagues the modern world may paradoxically be aggravated by the pervasive use of statin drugs." From the study being discussed today
Back in the Dark Ages, people believed that decaying flesh caused maggots. After all, turn over any dead animal with you foot, and what did you see? Despite our scientific advances, beliefs haven't changed much. We still have a medical profession that ERRONEOUSLY BELIEVES germs are the sole cause of infectious disease --- while the VERY DRUGS they prescribe to kill said germs destroy our collective immune systems. And while there are any number of other examples, the current example of STATIN DRUGS might just take the cake.
Although mainstream medicine has been increasingly squawking about HIGH CHOLESTEROL LEVELS for decades, there is opposition --- a steadily growing group of renegades within the profession that thinks the hype over High Cholesterol is mostly a bunch of poppycock CREATED TO MAKE MONEY. This was brought to the forefront with Dr. Golomb's ground-breaking 2008 study (Statin Adverse Effects: A Review of the Literature and Evidence for a Mitochondrial Mechanism). According to the University of California in San Diego, "The UCSD Statin Study group, headed by Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, has actively been researching statin medications and their risk-benefit balance, including possible side effects". After REVIEWING NEARLY 900 STUDIES on the topic, her group concluded that....
"Converging evidence supports a mitochondrial foundation for muscle adverse events associated with statins, and both theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction may also underlie many non-muscle statin adverse events. Evidence from randomized controlled trials and studies of other designs indicates existence of additional statin-associated adverse events, such as cognitive loss, neuropathy, pancreatic and hepatic dysfunction, and sexual dysfunction. Physician awareness of statin adverse events is reportedly low even for the events most widely reported by patient. Statins are a linchpin of current approaches to cardiovascular protection: however, adverse events of statins are neither vanishingly rare nor of trivial impact."
Golomb's researchers are not a lone voice in the wilderness. If you have the academic credentials, you could join a group called THINCS (The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics). Led by UFFE RAVNSKOV MD / Ph.D, the members of this organization believe that animal fats and cholesterol are not the primary culprits in heart disease and high cholesterol ---- something I myself have written about any number of times (HERE is one of them). Their website has a huge list of studies and articles to this effect. But there's more.
Although mainstream medicine has been increasingly squawking about HIGH CHOLESTEROL LEVELS for decades, there is opposition --- a steadily growing group of renegades within the profession that thinks the hype over High Cholesterol is mostly a bunch of poppycock CREATED TO MAKE MONEY. This was brought to the forefront with Dr. Golomb's ground-breaking 2008 study (Statin Adverse Effects: A Review of the Literature and Evidence for a Mitochondrial Mechanism). According to the University of California in San Diego, "The UCSD Statin Study group, headed by Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, has actively been researching statin medications and their risk-benefit balance, including possible side effects". After REVIEWING NEARLY 900 STUDIES on the topic, her group concluded that....
"Converging evidence supports a mitochondrial foundation for muscle adverse events associated with statins, and both theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction may also underlie many non-muscle statin adverse events. Evidence from randomized controlled trials and studies of other designs indicates existence of additional statin-associated adverse events, such as cognitive loss, neuropathy, pancreatic and hepatic dysfunction, and sexual dysfunction. Physician awareness of statin adverse events is reportedly low even for the events most widely reported by patient. Statins are a linchpin of current approaches to cardiovascular protection: however, adverse events of statins are neither vanishingly rare nor of trivial impact."
Golomb's researchers are not a lone voice in the wilderness. If you have the academic credentials, you could join a group called THINCS (The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics). Led by UFFE RAVNSKOV MD / Ph.D, the members of this organization believe that animal fats and cholesterol are not the primary culprits in heart disease and high cholesterol ---- something I myself have written about any number of times (HERE is one of them). Their website has a huge list of studies and articles to this effect. But there's more.
NEW STUDY SAYS STATINS CAUSE ATHEROSCLEROSIS AND HEART DISEASE
We have been browbeat with the idea that Stain Drugs can be our savior --- if we can just get enough people on them. For example, it's not science fiction that in similar fashion to CHLORINE & FLUORIDE, there is a movement within the medical community attempting to get Statins infused into our water supply (HERE). Stop for a moment. What if I told you something so shocking that you would probably dismiss it outright? What if it were discovered that not only are Statin drugs not helping us in terms of heart disease and hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis / atherosclerosis), but are actually making the problem(s) worse? Would you believe me or would you write it off as another rant?
It might be easy to write me off, but it's much tougher to write off a study published by a group of seven cardiology researchers in the February, 2015 issue of Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology (Statins Stimulate Atherosclerosis and Heart Failure: Pharmacological Mechanisms). Read the title of the study again, and pay attention to their conclusions.
"In contrast to the current belief that cholesterol reduction with statins decreases atherosclerosis, we present a perspective that statins may be causative in coronary artery calcification and can function as mitochondrial toxins that impair muscle function in the heart and blood vessels through the depletion of coenzyme Q10 and ‘heme A’, and thereby ATP generation. Statins inhibit the synthesis of vitamin K2, the cofactor for matrix Gla-protein activation, which in turn protects arteries from calcification.
Statins inhibit the biosynthesis of selenium containing proteins, one of which is glutathione peroxidase serving to suppress peroxidative stress. An impairment of selenoprotein biosynthesis may be a factor in congestive heart failure, reminiscent of the dilated cardiomyopathies seen with selenium deficiency. Thus, the epidemic of heart failure and atherosclerosis that plagues the modern world may paradoxically be aggravated by the pervasive use of statin drugs. We propose that current statin treatment guidelines be critically reevaluated."
Gulp! Although I have been beating this same drum for over two decades (HERE is the main reason why), I did not expect to see the day when doctors actually admitted that the drugs they are prescribing for high cholesterol and heart disease are causing the very problems they are prescribing them for in the first place --- an almost identical scenario to what we've seen with OSTEOPOROSIS DRUGS. And while a rapidly increasing number of researchers are coming to THE CONCLUSION that dietary cholesterol or saturated fat is not a health risk, our nation's treating physicians are slow to catch on. For instance, despite the recent revelation by our government that the cholesterol in your food has almost no bearing on the amount of cholesterol in your blood, we get a steady stream of this sort of thing from mainstream medicine --- and unfortunately, our government.
The government's new 'Dietary Guidelines' --- guidelines that still; despite the dietary debacle of the past three decades, continue to beat the drum for, "grains (at least half being whole grains), fat-free and low-fat dairy, soy...." On average we... are right on target for grains; and those under 13 years old consume only about 1/2 the amount of dairy recommended.... are very very low on fish-derived protein; and also high on solid fat consumption." The only fish that has any health benefit is wild, cold-water fish (HERE). And as to the solid fats (Saturated Fats), click on the previous link.
In the January 11th issue of the British Medical Journal's Evidence-Based Medicine Blog, Dr. Geoffrey Modest discussed these recommendations by saying, "Several very large observational studies have not found that eating foods high in cholesterol is much of a cardiovascular risk factor. Also, as a perspective, only a small minority of circulating cholesterol (about 20%) is from diet, most is from genes…." But are these two sentences really true?
The first sentence is completely true. However, the idea that we can blame our Cholesterol woes ON OUR GENES and not our diets is totally and ridiculously false. Wait a minute. How can this idea be false, when I agree with Dr. Modest's assertion that dietary cholesterol does not cause high blood levels of cholesterol? The problem is not the cholesterol we are consuming; it's our NATIONAL ADDICTION TO SUGAR AND JUNK CARBS! Although the government is telling us that our grain consumption is just about perfect, many of us know better (HERE is the ridiculous diet they continue to recommend). Grain is what you fatten farm animals with. And this doesn't even begin to touch on the issue of grains as they relate to FOOD SENSITIVITIES. It's no wonder that America is in the throes of an epidemic of Cardiometabolic Syndrome.
Although you may have never heard the term, Cardiometabolic Syndrome (sometimes referred to simply as Metabolic Syndrome or its old name, Syndrome X), it is yet another of the 'epidemics' currently raging in America. In order to be "officially" diagnosed with Cardiometabolic Syndrome, you must have three of the following.
When your doctor EXAMINES YOU and realizes that you have at least three of the above bullet points, you will be "officially" diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome. Rest assured that you will be put on Statin Drugs. I won't lie to you; these drugs lower cholesterol like crazy. But interestingly enough, they only lower your chances of heart attacks, strokes, and death, slightly --- MANY STUDIES say not at all.
Back to the dead-animals-causing-maggots example from the beginning of this post. We all know the maggots came from flies, not from the decaying meat itself. We need to think of cholesterol in similar fashion. Unless you truly have a genetic cholesterol issue (relatively rare, although this is what EVERYONE IS TOLD), cholesterol is not your problem. Cholesterol just happens to be the material that your body uses to patch the damage to your blood vessels caused by INFLAMMATION. It's also why TOM BRADY is largely correct as to the diet eaten by he and his family.
It might be easy to write me off, but it's much tougher to write off a study published by a group of seven cardiology researchers in the February, 2015 issue of Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology (Statins Stimulate Atherosclerosis and Heart Failure: Pharmacological Mechanisms). Read the title of the study again, and pay attention to their conclusions.
"In contrast to the current belief that cholesterol reduction with statins decreases atherosclerosis, we present a perspective that statins may be causative in coronary artery calcification and can function as mitochondrial toxins that impair muscle function in the heart and blood vessels through the depletion of coenzyme Q10 and ‘heme A’, and thereby ATP generation. Statins inhibit the synthesis of vitamin K2, the cofactor for matrix Gla-protein activation, which in turn protects arteries from calcification.
Statins inhibit the biosynthesis of selenium containing proteins, one of which is glutathione peroxidase serving to suppress peroxidative stress. An impairment of selenoprotein biosynthesis may be a factor in congestive heart failure, reminiscent of the dilated cardiomyopathies seen with selenium deficiency. Thus, the epidemic of heart failure and atherosclerosis that plagues the modern world may paradoxically be aggravated by the pervasive use of statin drugs. We propose that current statin treatment guidelines be critically reevaluated."
Gulp! Although I have been beating this same drum for over two decades (HERE is the main reason why), I did not expect to see the day when doctors actually admitted that the drugs they are prescribing for high cholesterol and heart disease are causing the very problems they are prescribing them for in the first place --- an almost identical scenario to what we've seen with OSTEOPOROSIS DRUGS. And while a rapidly increasing number of researchers are coming to THE CONCLUSION that dietary cholesterol or saturated fat is not a health risk, our nation's treating physicians are slow to catch on. For instance, despite the recent revelation by our government that the cholesterol in your food has almost no bearing on the amount of cholesterol in your blood, we get a steady stream of this sort of thing from mainstream medicine --- and unfortunately, our government.
The government's new 'Dietary Guidelines' --- guidelines that still; despite the dietary debacle of the past three decades, continue to beat the drum for, "grains (at least half being whole grains), fat-free and low-fat dairy, soy...." On average we... are right on target for grains; and those under 13 years old consume only about 1/2 the amount of dairy recommended.... are very very low on fish-derived protein; and also high on solid fat consumption." The only fish that has any health benefit is wild, cold-water fish (HERE). And as to the solid fats (Saturated Fats), click on the previous link.
In the January 11th issue of the British Medical Journal's Evidence-Based Medicine Blog, Dr. Geoffrey Modest discussed these recommendations by saying, "Several very large observational studies have not found that eating foods high in cholesterol is much of a cardiovascular risk factor. Also, as a perspective, only a small minority of circulating cholesterol (about 20%) is from diet, most is from genes…." But are these two sentences really true?
The first sentence is completely true. However, the idea that we can blame our Cholesterol woes ON OUR GENES and not our diets is totally and ridiculously false. Wait a minute. How can this idea be false, when I agree with Dr. Modest's assertion that dietary cholesterol does not cause high blood levels of cholesterol? The problem is not the cholesterol we are consuming; it's our NATIONAL ADDICTION TO SUGAR AND JUNK CARBS! Although the government is telling us that our grain consumption is just about perfect, many of us know better (HERE is the ridiculous diet they continue to recommend). Grain is what you fatten farm animals with. And this doesn't even begin to touch on the issue of grains as they relate to FOOD SENSITIVITIES. It's no wonder that America is in the throes of an epidemic of Cardiometabolic Syndrome.
Although you may have never heard the term, Cardiometabolic Syndrome (sometimes referred to simply as Metabolic Syndrome or its old name, Syndrome X), it is yet another of the 'epidemics' currently raging in America. In order to be "officially" diagnosed with Cardiometabolic Syndrome, you must have three of the following.
- HYPERTENSION: Hypertension is another name for HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. A study from the 2005 issue of Lancet (Global Burden of Hypertension....) said that over 26% of the world's adult population had Hypertension as of Y2K. The CDC puts the percentage of American adults currently dealing with Hypertension at almost 30% (70 million).
- HIGH TRIGLYCERIDES: This means you have too much fat in your blood. According to CDC statistics, somewhere between one in four and one in three Americans has High Triglycerides. What causes fat in the blood? I've shown you already that it is junk carbs and not dietary fat.
- CENTRAL OBESITY: In case you were not aware, BELLY FAT is a risk factor for every health problem you could name in the next five minutes. And on top of that, an estimated 7 to 10% of our population is MEDICALLY OBESE, NORMAL WEIGHT (MONW aka "Skinny Fat"). Likewise, if your BMI is over 30, or your waist is over 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men, you are OBESE. According to CDC statistics, nearly 7 out of 10 Americans are overweight or obese.
- HIGH FASTING BLOOD SUGAR OR ABNORMAL A1C TEST: This is largely due to LIVING THE HIGH CARB LIFESTYLE. Both are heavily associated with both early puberty and PCOS. However, it is critical to remember that DIABETES is not so much a blood sugar problem as it is a problem of unbridled Inflammation. The CDC says that nearly 10% of the American population (over 29 million) have Diabetes. The number with INSULIN RESISTANCE (pre-Diabetes) is thought to be nearly double this. My guess is that this last statistic is grossly underestimated. Interestingly enough, one of the main risk factors for developing Dysglycemia seems to taking medication --- virtually ANY OF THEM.
- CHOLESTEROL RATIO ISSUES: Although today's doctors are certainly concerned with Total Cholesterol levels over 200, you will earn a diagnosis of Cardiometabloic Syndrome if your HDL ("good" cholesterol) is too low, and your LDL ("bad" cholesterol) is too high. According to the CDC's 2015 article, High Cholesterol Facts, 73.5 million adults (31.7%) have this problem.
- PROTEIN (ALBUMIN) IN THE URINE: Your kidneys should be filtering protein out of the urine. Kidney damage is a hallmark of Diabetes. If you are not filtering protein, it's a good indication you have some sort of blood sugar dysregulation going on. In fact, WebMD's article on the subject states, "Albuminuria is most often caused by kidney damage from diabetes".
- INCREASED CRP (C-REACTIVE PROTEIN LEVELS: Although this test is fairly generalized, it is indicative of SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION. Because Inflammation is the root of virtually every health problem under the sun, it would behoove you to click the link and spend three minutes to understand it.
When your doctor EXAMINES YOU and realizes that you have at least three of the above bullet points, you will be "officially" diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome. Rest assured that you will be put on Statin Drugs. I won't lie to you; these drugs lower cholesterol like crazy. But interestingly enough, they only lower your chances of heart attacks, strokes, and death, slightly --- MANY STUDIES say not at all.
Back to the dead-animals-causing-maggots example from the beginning of this post. We all know the maggots came from flies, not from the decaying meat itself. We need to think of cholesterol in similar fashion. Unless you truly have a genetic cholesterol issue (relatively rare, although this is what EVERYONE IS TOLD), cholesterol is not your problem. Cholesterol just happens to be the material that your body uses to patch the damage to your blood vessels caused by INFLAMMATION. It's also why TOM BRADY is largely correct as to the diet eaten by he and his family.
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