The word is out. I first learned about it in a “Sound Medicine”
interview last July with science writer Sharon Begley, a follow-up to an
article she had written in April. In it she discussed research showing that
giving statins to healthy people to lower their cholesterol does not help to
prevent a first heart attack. It turns
out that cholesterol numbers are not a good predictor of heart attack risk and
that lowering your cholesterol is unlikely to improve your odds. (See my post, “Statins – Whoops!”)
More recently, Drs. Stephen Sinatra and Jonny
Bowden were on “Dr. Oz” discussing the new approach and promoting their new
book, The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart
Disease and the Statin-Free Plan That Will.
Here is a synopsis by Dr. Joseph Raffaele:
“Dr. Sinatra explains that cholesterol is a
vital substance, necessary for the proper functioning of our bodies. To name
just a few: it keeps our cells flexible, is essential for hormone production,
and is turned into vitamin D in the skin. He believes it has been
vilified as the cause of heart disease because of a longstanding misinterpretation
of the studies often cited to support its role. He rightly states that
about half the people who have high cholesterol never get a heart attack and
half who do have a heart attack have normal cholesterol. The message is
clear: total cholesterol, the number we’ve all been obsessing about for
the past few decades, is meaningless. It’s not the cause of heart
disease.”
If cholesterol numbers don’t matter, what
does? Cholesterol is still in the picture but the issue is the particle size of
your LDL cholesterol. Small LDL particles
are more likely to get into arterial walls and cause inflammation. Inflammation is now thought to be a
contributing factor in many illnesses, not just heart disease. Obesity, insulin resistance, and a diet
high in sugar and processed carbohydrates are factors that contribute to this
condition. Sinatra and Bowden recommend
an anti-inflammatory diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. They note that only one group of patients has
been shown to be helped by statins: middle-aged men who have already had one
heart attack.
“New Thinking on Heart Disease Prevention,” a
blog post by Dr. Ryan Sweeney, provides a clear and concise summary of the new
approach. In addition to particle size and inflammation,
Dr. Sweeney names oxidative stress as a factor contributing to heart disease. The summary at the end includes
the names of the tests that are needed to monitor the three factors: CRP-hs, Homocysteine, Oxidized HDL and LDL,
and LDL subtractions (for particle size).
In his blog post about the Dr. Oz show
mentioned above, Dr. Joseph Raffaele takes all three doctors to task for not
mentioning the benefits of hormone therapy in reducing the risk of heart
disease for women who take it.
“What if I told you there is natural therapy
that reduces your risk of having a cardiovascular event by 41% and your chance
of dying of any cause by 27%, while also being free of any of the side effects
commonly seen with statins? Would you take it? In addition to
heart disease prevention, this therapy’s common “side effects” include a
reduction in hot flashes, vaginal dryness, depression, brain fog, insomnia, and
vaginal dryness. Serious “side effects” include a 23% reduction in breast
cancer (yes, reduction) and improved bone density. If you are a menopausal
woman between 50 and 60 years old, you can expect all these benefits from
estrogen replacement.”
So here’s the situation: millions of patients are
currently taking statins with no benefit to their health and some potential hazards. Statins can cause muscle weakness and memory
loss, as well as other physical and cognitive problems. For a more extensive list of possible side
effects take a look at “How Statins Really Work Explains Why They Don’t Really
Work” by MIT scientist Stephanie Seneff. All of us are paying
for this useless and possibly harmful treatment through our insurance premiums
and our taxes. We will also be paying to
treat whatever damage is done to patients who take statins. At the same time, the use of hormone therapy,
which has repeatedly been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and to be
safe for most women, is being discouraged by Medicare and insurance companies. I have been on hormone therapy for
thirty-three years, half my life, and I consider myself amazingly lucky.
