More bad news about statins....

Today's Post:  Friday, 10-11-2013

We’ve already posted about this before.

Most people have the heredity such that although fewer people get heart attacks per 10,000 people by taking statins, 100 people, repeat one hundred people, have to take statins to prevent one heart attack.

Stopping ALL the foods and drinks that over-boost blood sugar and insulin and cause insulin resistance is far more effective than that.

So is getting vigorous or intense exercise in relatively short times per day that you work up to gradually most days of every week.

But taking statins tends to cause such exercises to make your muscles painful and can even cause them PERMANENT harm and even death.

So there are better ways to prevent heart disease and heart attacks.  Statins don’t help much. So doing it better than statins is a pretty low obstacle to hurdle and doing both those two methods is MUCH more effective.

So is managing to completely avoid tobacco smoke.

But there is a LOT more bad news.  For every 100 people who take statins, 1 avoids a heart attack but  NINE get type 2 diabetes.

According to one study 3 get cataracts who would not have without the statins.

It seems that most older people already have too little of ubiquinol, the form of CoQ10 your body actually uses.  When that happens the mitochondria in each of your cells becomes less healthy and creates less energy in your cells. 

This mitochondrial dysfunction turns out to be a cause of insulin resistance that causes high blood sugar levels and when it does so more it’s labeled type 2 diabetes.

Statins make this far worse because they deplete what little is left of ubiquinol in people who take them.

This makes mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance worse.  This side effect looks to be the agent that causes muscle damage.  And, it makes the people taking statins feel depleted and lacking in energy.

So, that suggests that even in people who don’t get blood sugar high enough to be called type 2 diabetes, people who take statins likely have blood sugar that is elevated.

Oops!

A recent study found that such low level high blood sugar directly causes Alzheimer’s like brain damage.

And, there is more that can be done that is proven to work to lower the kind of small particle LDL that actually causes heart disease beside stopping your intake of heart attack starters and vigorous exercise.

Each of those do that BETTER than statins; and doing both is very effective.

In addition to that, carefully taking modest, 250 to 300 mg doses of niacin after breakfast and lunch; taking the sterol beta sitosterol, and taking curcumin each separately helps to lower the kind of small particle LDL that actually causes heart disease.

Taking the supplement chromium and eating raw nuts if you aren’t allergic and eating organic blueberries and taking bilberry supplements all tend to increase HDL levels.  So does taking resveratrol and drinking modest amounts of red wine.

The other thing statins do that looks to be protective is to lower chronic inflammation.

Here again though it is a very poor second class solution.

The main causes of chronic inflammation are gum disease and taking in about ten times too much omega 6 oil from such sources as corn and soy and canola oil and from the fat from animals fed grains – primarily corn.

So what’s better than statins to lower chronic inflammation?

Learning to brush your teeth at the gumline and doing that AND flossing every day and seeing your dentist at least once a year for a checkup and teeth cleaning works.

Stopping ALL such oils and using extra virgin olive oil is more effective. 

Eating only meats and eggs and dairy products from cows only fed grass or on pasture or eating organic sprouts works.

So does only eating wild caught fish.

Being really harsh about trimming all the fat from protein foods from animals fed grain and eating such foods less often does work too but not as well as eating foods from naturally fed animals.

And, if you do all  that to slash your intake of omega 6 oils by like 5 to one or more, THEN taking omega 3 supplements and eating wild caught fish high in omega 3 oils, adds to the effect.

In addition, natural vitamin E and the other tocopherols found in olive oil, avocados, and nuts; curcumin in supplements and the turmeric spice it comes from and ginger each are anti-inflammatory.

So with all those superior alternatives, it is totally unneeded for most people to take statins.

People who are just starting them and have scary high levels of LDL cholesterol AND who test as being in the group genetically that get more benefit from statins, may benefit from low dose statins, taking ubiquinol, and keeping their exercises moderate while taking statins may benefit.

So can people who just had a heart attack and are still in the ICU.

For everyone else there are far superior ways to prevent heart disease.  Even better, instead of damaging or quality of life degrading side effects, people who use those methods get other health benefits!

So what’s new that occasioned this post?

Besides the brain damage from mitochondrial dysfunction and elevated blood sugar from statins, they often cause other brain and nerve damage in many people.

And, it turns out that a study has been done that shows some statins do this more than others and some have other side effects more than others.

Most statin variations fit in one or more of these categories.  So the best way to use this information is to never take statins if you can possibly use the superior methods instead.

A study reported in the Medical News Today email two weeks ago on Friday, 9-27 focused on the mental functions harmed by statins.

But it included other information on which statins cause other damage.

Which statins are worst for side effects!!

Based on this article, 

Mevacor and lovastatin should never be used due to the muscle damage they cause.

Pravastatin (Pravachol) should never be used due to the cognitive damage it does.

And atorvastatin (brand name Lipitor), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor) all tend to produce type 2 diabetes and are likely best not used.

This new study follows others that have found links between statin use and other health problems.

“For instance, earlier this year, a Canadian study published in BMJ found that some statins may increase type 2 diabetes risk, with patients taking atorvastatin (brand name Lipitor), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor) showing the highest risk.

And more recently, a US study published in JAMA Ophthalmology, suggested statin use may raise cataract risk.

There is also evidence that some medications can interact with lovastatin (brand names include Mevacor) and increase the risk of muscle damage.”

“This last point was made last year in a consumer update on statins by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which also mentioned some statin users had been reporting cognitive problems, such as memory loss, forgetfulness and confusion.

In that update, the FDA said that while the value of statins in preventing heart disease has been clearly established, they would be changing the drug labels of popular statin products to reflect some of these new concerns.”

“For their study, the researchers tested two commonly prescribed statins, pravastatin (Pravachol) and atorvostatin (Lipitor) in rats.”

The results showed pravastatin, but not atorvostatin, impaired the animals' ability to perform simple learning and memory tasks.

They gave rats a daily dose of the statins for 18 days and tested their ability to perform a simple learning task involving finding a food reward - before, during and after treatment.

On the last day of treatment and one week after ceasing treatment, they also tested the rats' ability to recognize a previously encountered object - this tested their recognition memory.

The results showed that over the last few days of treatment, daily medication with pravastatin tended to impair the rats' learning. However, this effect was reversed when treatment ceased.

Also, in the recognition memory test, taking pravastatin reduced rats' ability to discriminate new objects.

However, "no effects were observed for atorvostatin in either task," write the authors, who conclude that "chronic treatment with pravastatin impairs working and recognition memory in rodents."