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Do statin drugs save lives…yes they do. Are they wonder drugs? First of all, statins are used to treat problems with too much of certain types of cholesterol in the body. Certainly there are people who genetically are more prone to high levels of "bad" cholesterol, but they are in the minority. Most people now have dyslipidemia (less than optimal balance of fats in the blood) due to poor diet and lack of exercise. I am reluctant to say that statins are wonder drugs, partially because they are being used to treat a condition that is due to poor lifestyle choices (and all drugs have potentially serious side effects). The side effects of choosing lifestyle changes as treatment are that one generally enjoys better overall health and vitality as opposed to the muscle pain and liver dysfunction, etc. that are potentially associated with statin use. I am also reluctant about statin use because the recent research calls into question how effective they are for treating cardiovascular disease. The JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention) study has been very widely used to justify the increasing use of statins. A review of this study was published in the June 28th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The conclusion of this review was that the Jupitor study was flawed and that: "The results of the trial do not support the use of statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and raise troubling questions concerning the role of commercial sponsors."
Does this mean that statins are not useful for treating cardiovascular disease? No, it just means that the Jupitor study did NOT demonstrate their usefulness. Certainly statins lower cholesterol, but…keeping track of cholesterol count is just a piece of the cardiovascular disease puzzle. Fifty percent of people whose first symptom of heart disease is a heart attack have normal cholesterol. What is needed is a functional approach, looking at why your body is producing blood fats in an imbalanced fashion and also looking at your level of inflammation and why that level is elevated since both dyslipidemia and inflammation are necessary for cardiovascular disease to occur. Our bodies have this process called homeostasis (the ability or tendency of an organism or cell to maintain internal equilibrium by adjusting its physiological processes) that constantly strives to keep everything in balance. However, if we feed our bodies the wrong fuel and are too sedentary that process is handicapped. It is amazing how well your body can maintain optimal health, given the right fuel and maintenance (proper exercise, rest, etc.) . I feel that statins have their time and place in preventive medicine, but that doctors are at times being encouraged to prescribe them too often, in place of lifestyle changes due to the demands placed on them by their patients, which are driven by the drug company advertisements and by their general lack of knowledge of natural alternatives.
In closing, if you are taking a statin, you should know that statins deplete your body of CoQ10. CoQ10 is a cofactor (co-enzyme) that is essential for the creation of ATP molecules, which you need for cellular energy production. Organs such as your heart have higher energy requirements, and therefore require more CoQ10 to function properly. As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure. Coenzyme Q10 is also very important in the process of neutralizing free radicals. So when your CoQ10 is depleted, you enter a vicious cycle of increased free radicals, loss of cellular energy, and damaged mitochondrial DNA. Talk to your doctor about adding a CoQ10 supplement to prevent this deficiency.
References:
Arch Intern Med. 2010 Jun 28;170(12):1007-8
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