Lowering Your Cholesterol May Not Prevent Heart Disease: Part 2


By Michael Dworkin, PD, CCN, & J. Erika Dworkin


Dietary factors and therapeutic lifestyle changes have no side ef- fects. They should be considered the first line of defense in pre- ventive cardiology...Rather than ...targeting cholesterol numbers alone, doctors owe it totheir patients – and patients owe it to themselves- to look further into these controversial issues before embracing potent drugs that might not truly serve the needs of the people for whom they’re being prescribed. ~ Stephen Sinatra, MD, FACC, Co-Author With Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease – And the Statin-Free Plan That Will (2015)


Overdosed America, published in The Lancet (2007), one of the world’s top peer-reviewed general medical journals, after analyz- ing eight randomized trials that compared statins to placebos:


H


“...statins should not be prescribed for true primary preven- tion in women of any age or men older than 69 years. High-risk men age 30 to 69 years should be advised that about 50 patients need to be treated for five years to pre- vent one event. In our experience, many men presented with this evidence do not choose to take a statin, espe- cially when informed of the potential benefits of lifestyle modification on cardiovascular risk and overall health (emphasis added). This approach...would lead to statins being used by a much smaller proportion of the overall population than recommended by any of the guidelines.”


Part 1 of this two-part article (March 2017 issue) addressed a more updated approach to preventive cardiology, including key points from The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cho- lesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease – And the Statin-Free Plan That Will, the thoroughly documented book that Stephen Sinatra, MD, FACC, recently co-authored with Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS (Sinatra/Bowden). A more detailed discussion of the significant disadvantages of taking statins, and a supplements-based approach to prevention of heart disease, follows.


26 Natural Nutmeg - April 2017


ave you ever wondered whether taking your cholesterol- lowering statin drug will actually prevent heart disease? Consider this statement John Abramson, MD, author of


The Evidence Against Statin Drugs According to Sinatra/Bowden, statin drug benefits have been greatly exaggerated, and any advantage statins offer has nothing to do with their ability to lower cholesterol. Though recognizing that statins reduce inflammation, provide antioxidant protection, and enable blood to flow more easily, they maintain that doctors should prescribe statins only to middle-aged men who have had a heart attack and are at very high risk for another one, and never to children, the elderly, or most women.


The authors’ evidence-based position stems from these proven cholesterol-lowering and other side effects of statins:


1. Cognitive/Memory Dysfunction: they reduce cholesterol in the brain, which requires it for healthy cell membranes and their ability to “talk” to each other (neurotransmitter transmission).


2. Energy Reduction (Weakness/Fatigue): they uncontrovertibly deplete body stores of the antioxidant CoQ10, without which the body cannot function (see below).


3. Muscle Pain & Heart Damage: their depleting CoQ10 dam- ages muscles that rely on it for energy production.


4. Sexual/Erectile Dysfunction: they reduce production of all of the major sex hormones (testosterone, progesterone, estro- gen), and interfere with the function of oxytocin (the bonding/ love hormone produced in the brain) and serotonin (the mood hormone) receptors in the brain.


5. Increased Risk of Infection: their anti-inflammatory effect reduces NF-KB, a highly inflammatory but critical component of the immune system and the healing process; they lower LDL, known to be able to inactivate more than 90% of the most toxic bacteria, especially those that cause respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.


6. Increased Risk of Cancer, Diabetes & All-Cause Death.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44