The high price of low cholesterol

by Barb Jarmoska
Freshlife Founder

I was at a reception, in a large room full of people who were milling about, talking, eating and moving from one conversation to another, as folks do at such a gathering. I was on the sidelines, talking to an M.D. friend of mine. “Look out there,” he said “I’d be willing to bet I could tell you with impressive accuracy which of those people are taking statin drugs.” Knowing that he was not writing prescriptions for these drugs, I asked how he could discern that fact. “By their posture and gait,” he said. “Look how they move. I call it the statin shuffle.”

The group of medicines known as “statins” are used to treat elevated cholesterol and heart disease. They are also prescribed for people who have diabetes and those who have had a stroke.

These drugs include Lipitor, Mevacor, Zocor, Pravachol, Lescol, Crestor, Altocor, and other generic versions.

Statins are one of the most widely prescribed and most lucrative sectors of the pharmaceutical industry, with total revenues exceeding $26 billion in 2008. This means people are spending $71 million dollars per day, 365 days a year just for this one class of drugs. Staggering.

The use of statins has risen dramatically because high cholesterol is diagnosed ever more frequently. Little wonder. Twenty years ago, top cardiologists were opposed to prescribing drugs to lower cholesterol, and readings above 200 were acceptable. Due in large part to aggressive marketing campaigns to both physicians and consumers, pharmaceutical companies are cashing in big time on the new, lower “acceptable” standards for cholesterol.

Statins drugs do their cell-altering deed in the liver, where an enzyme known as HMG-CoA reductase is responsible for making cholesterol. Statin drugs shut this enzyme down. When this happens, cholesterol is not the only molecule that is no longer synthesized. HMG-CoA reductase has other roles in human health, most notably the synthesis of Co-Q 10, a molecule that is crucial to the function of every muscle cell in the body; especially the heart! (See any illogicality here?) For this reason, statin users are in dire need of Co-Q 10 and should take a daily supplement of the ubiquinol form of this crucial enzyme.

The drug companies claim that statin drugs have few side effects. Last month, the statin side effect list got longer and more serious when the British Medical Journal published a study led by Julia Hippisley-Cox and Carol Coupland, professors at Nottingham University. Researchers studied data on 2,004,692 patients aged 30-84 years who had been prescribed a range of statins.

The conclusion - people who use statins have a higher risk of liver dysfunction, kidney failure, muscle weakness and cataracts. Coupland and Hippisley-Cox found that for every 10,000 high-risk women treated with statins, the positive impact would be around 271 fewer cases of heart disease. On the other side, there would also be 74 extra patients with liver dysfunction, 23 extra patients with acute kidney failure, 307 with cataracts and 39 with a muscle weakness condition called myopathy. Similar figures were found for men except rates of myopathy were higher.

When it comes to statin drugs, the conclusion is no different from that of any other pharmaceutical: cost/benefit. The decision on what that cost/benefit ratio must be is one that should be entered into by the patient (you!) with eyes wide open. I am not opposed to pharmaceutical intervention, what I do not endorse is the use of drugs to accomplish ends that better choices could bring about at far less cost and risk.

True health care is woefully absent in America. The government debate is all about who is going to pay to manage disease. Fundamental change in the way we approach health is called for.

That sweeping generalization is perfectly applicable to the $26 billion dollar statin market. In the first place, cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease. Cholesterol is a symptom that the body is out of balance; the liver is overburdened and/or the arterial walls are lacking in integrity and elasticity. These conditions can be improved with better choices, and natural remedies that do not put you at risk for kidney failure or cataracts! The Freshlife Wellness Coaches would be happy to talk to you about a program for improving cardiovascular health and lowering cholesterol without statin drugs. I would also be happy to send you information by email. You may contact me at barb@freshlife.com, noting “cholesterol” on the reference line of your message.

Your body’s default setting is health and balance. Whenever ill health and imbalance are present, it is wise to first ask yourself, “Why?” Your journey to well-being begins with the answer to that vastly complex, one-word question.