Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 He was told he would need to be on statin drugs for the rest of his life. Refusing to believe that information, he did not fill the prescription and instead started altering his diet, removing animal products, cheese and fried foods, and boosting his consumption of blueberries and other nutrient-dense superfoods.
When he went back to his doctor a few months later, the doctor was astonished at how much positive change had been made -- and was surprised that he wasn't taking any medication at all. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 Risk has been reported to be lower among users of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs [42] and among women who have used postmenopausal estrogens [43] or have reproductive health histories that heighten exposure to endogenous estrogens [44]. Several aspects of diet could modify these risk factors or independently influence the risk of cataracts. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 They want everyone in the world to take prescription drugs every day for the rest of their lives. statin drugs certainly fall into that category. One of the primary marketing messages about statin drugs is that you need them to reduce your cholesterol level and bring it into a healthy range. But you don't need statin drugs in order to achieve a healthy level of cholesterol, as has been demonstrated right here.
What else did I do to achieve these numbers? Let me tell you that these numbers are impossible to achieve without regular physical exercise. |
Steven V. Joyal
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 If you take statin drugs and experience severe muscle pain or weakness, contact your physician immediately.
Niacin is available as a supplement as well as in a prescription, sustained-release form. The prescription form is significantly more costly and not much better in terms of side-effect profile or tolerability.
There are three forms of niacin available: nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, and inositol hexaniacinate. Nicotinic acid can decrease triglycerides and raise HDL cholesterol, but this requires high doses (typically 1.5 to 3 g daily), which can cause flushing and liver toxicity. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Research has shown blueberries are even more effective at lowering LDL cholesterol levels than statin drugs. Again, this is something you don't hear very much from doctors, or certainly from the pharmaceutical industry, but it's been proven true -- blueberries are better than statin drugs. And now, with these upcoming aeroponic growing systems, consumers finally have a realistically simple way to grow their own berries.
The system I'm talking about isn't ready yet -- the manufacturer says it will take another six months, probably. But I'll keep you posted on this when it's finally available. |
| Suddenly, they are lacking in sex hormones, because sex hormones are manufactured from cholesterol, and now that they are taking statin drugs they can't make cholesterol. So now they have no sex drive left.
Of course, they think this is just an aging problem. They think it's just because they're getting old; they no longer have any sex drive, so what do they do? They go back to the doctor. The doctor says, "Well, you need Viagra." So now they're on statin drugs and Viagra. |
Mark Sircus
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 Carolyn Dean says, "Magnesium is important in lowering blood pressure, keeping the heart muscle from going into spasm, and lowering cholesterol (by the same mechanism as statin drugs) but it can help heal the damage in the brain caused by a stroke." Magnesium, an important cofactor in metabolism and protein synthesis, joins into a complex with adenosine triphosphate. Magnesium acts as a noncompetitive NMDA receptor blocker; it inhibits the release of excitatory neurotransmitters at the presynaptic level and blocks voltage-gated calcium channels. |
| We users of statin drugs have experienced some of the symptoms listed below [1] that characterize peripheral neuropathy (damage to nerves outside the brain). Medical research published in peer-reviewed journals has shown that statins are able to cause peripheral neuropathy or a syndrome that is very similar to it. We petition the pharmaceutical manufacturers of statins [2] to: 1. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Many times, sadly, their doctors don't even tell them that they need to supplement CoQ10, which is one of the most important things a person needs to do when taking statin drugs. Of course, the number one thing they need to do is find ways to get off of statin drugs, and there are many easy ways to do that, frankly, through superfoods and nutrition, including eating blueberries, engaging in physical exercise, and so on. |
David W. Grotto, RD, LDN
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 We have embraced the convenience of statin drugs for reducing cholesterol, when the inclusion of foods with innate heart-protecting properties—such as fatty fish, oats, almonds, and beans—might be just as effective. And many of the shortcuts of modern medicine are not without their costs. In fact, Americans who visit physicians following adverse reactions to medications account for well over two million physician visits each year! |
Bottom Line Health
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| There were 56% fewer deaths in the group that was counseled to eat the Mediterranean diet—that's two to three times the benefit achieved by statin drugs.
The same holds true for exercise. A study conducted at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas looked at 25,000 men who had undergone physical exams. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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| The epidemiologic, experimental, and other circumstantial evidence implicating low HDL-C concentrations as a major CVD risk has driven considerable attention to this lipoprotein fraction as a potential therapeutic target to further reduce CVD risk beyond what can be achieved with the use of statin drugs. |
Jack Challem
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 Peter Langsjoen and many other researchers, statin drugs also decrease the body's production of CoQIO.
These drugs work by reducing the activity of a key enzyme involved in the production of cholesterol. However, the same enzyme is needed for CoQIO synthesis. So with great irony, drugs prescribed to lower the risk of a heart attack increase the risk of fatigue and heart failure.
For the most part, the pharmaceutical companies do not publicize this side effect of statin drugs. Yet Merck, the maker of Zocor, owns two patents describing the combination of its statin drug and CoQIO. |
Hyla Cass
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 Statins' Potential Effects on Mood and Thinking Ability
The side effects described below may or may not be related to CoQ|0 depletion with statin drugs. Some experts believe that these effects on thinking and mood may have more to do with depletion of cholesterol, which is essential for brain cell function, or with the drug's effects on important body chemicals that influence our moods and thoughts. |
| A former NASA physician and astronaut, Duane "Doc" Graveline, had a similar experience and wrote Statin Drugs: Side Effects and The Misguided War on Cholesterol (Duane Graveline, 2006). We met at a recent medical conference, and I was impressed by his knowledge, sincerity, and dedication. He lectures around the country to warn others of this dangerous side effect of statins. A visit to his website, www.spacedoc.net, will give you lots more good information. |
Mark Sircus
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| Research is also showing that magnesium has effects like statin drugs in lowering cholesterol. My husband's cholesterol used to be very high, and now it has also dropped significantly..... yes, he has improved his diet, but I can't help but wonder if magnesium oil is not also working its wonders for this! He refused the advice on using a prescription drug from his MD, and tried magnesium instead with a lowering of bad cholesterol by almost 250 points, and is now back to very near acceptable levels, a truly gratifying surprise and benefit of increasing magnesium levels. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Americans mask joint pain with deadly COX-2 inhibitor drugs, they mask nutritional deficiencies with antidepressant drugs, and they mask poor cardiovascular health with statin drugs and blood thinners (which are made from rat poison chemicals, by the way, and that's not an exaggeration). It's like taking your car to a mechanic and instead of the guy fixing your engine, he just takes a can of spray paint and sprays over the engine warning lights on your dashboard. Problem solved! No more engine warning lights! |
Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.
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 Clearly, as a practicing cardiologist 1 recognize the important benefits statin drugs have in lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease. And, although the use of statins in high-risk coronary patients, especially those with inflammatory markers, is good medicine, overuse of these potent pharmacologic agents in otherwise healthy people is likely not justified, given the known and unknown side effects of their long-term use.
It is extremely important that physicians be aware of the potential for statins to adversely affect coenzyme Qio levels. |
| People with heart disease, hypertension, gingival disease, Parkinson's disease, and the other disorders we've discussed, as well as anyone on statin drugs, are known to be deficient in coenzyme Q10. Whether these deficiencies are the cause, or the effect, of these varied medical problems, the end result is that they sap the life out of their mitochondria and reduce their energy supplies. You see, coenzyme Qi0 cannot function properly if electrons are not coming out of the Krebs cycle, and the Krebs cycle won't work without the fuel that's transported into the mitochondria by L-carnitine. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 What happens is that you struggle with this, and you are taking statin drugs for the rest of your life. The other thing is that a lot of people do not realize the fact that statin drugs – while they do block the production of cholesterol -- also block the production of a very important nutrient called Coenzyme Q10.
There are some studies appearing in the medical literature hinting to the fact that once you have been on these drugs for over eight years, you significantly are increasing your risk of cancer. |
Jack Challem
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| For the most part, the pharmaceutical companies do not publicize this side effect of statin drugs. Yet Merck, the maker of Zocor, owns two patents describing the combination of its statin drug and CoQIO. So anyone taking statin drugs should also take supplemental CoQIO.
How to Take CoQl 0 Supplements
The striking results obtained from CoQIO supplements may make this nutrient seem a little like a panacea. However, whenever nutrients positively affect bioenergetics and DNA, they will likely have diverse effects on health and well-being. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 You think statin drugs have a medical purpose? Think again. In reality, they only have a profit purpose. These drugs were invented to sell pills that manage disease states in people, not that solve any real health problem. Don't believe me? Just stop taking your statin drugs, if you dare, and watch your cholesterol skyrocket. You'll find out you're a slave to the drug, and no healthier than before.
What's the difference between legal and illegal drugs?
So what's the real difference between legal drugs and illegal drugs? Some people think that only illegal drugs are habit-forming. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Best Time to Get statin drugs to Save Your Life
Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, professor of cardiology, University of California at Los Angeles.
R. Scott Wright, MD, cardiologist, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
American Journal of Cardiology.
Patients who get a statin drug in the critical first hours after a heart attack are much more likely to leave the hospital alive than those who do not get the cholesterol-lowering medication, new research has found.
The benefits of the statin therapy carry on for several years beyond discharge.
R. |
Hyla Cass
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| The enormous use of statin drugs in the United States is tied into the belief that lowering cholesterol by any means necessary will, for virtually every person, dramatically reduce the chances of having a stroke or heart attack. But the cutting edge of research, which I'm sure will become accepted as fact in not too long, shows that the link between cholesterol and heart disease has been greatly exaggerated. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 After about four years of follow-up, the people on the Mediterranean diet experienced 70 percent less heart disease (about three times the reduction in risk achieved by statin drugs!). Not only that, but their overall risk of death was 45 percent lower.
Choosing the Right Nut
So which nuts are best? Well, we don't have a perfect answer to that question. Almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, macadamia nuts, and pistachio nuts all alter the composition of the blood in ways that would be expected to reduce the risk of coronary disease. |
Michael Friedman, ND
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 A study in Scandinavia on the use of statin drugs and diabetic cardiac outcome was assessed. The Scandinavian study was performed on over 4,000 patients. There was a 55% reduction in major cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction, in patients treated with simvastatin. However, statin drugs have a history of causing liver disease.70
PROGRESSION OF RENAL DISEASE IN INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES
Stage
Onset
Lab
Risk Factors
Treatment
1. |
Michael T. Murray
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 That translates to being placed on one of the statin drugs. These drugs work by inhibiting a key enzyme in the liver, HMG-CoA reductase, required for the manufacture of cholesterol. Popular examples of statin drugs include atorvastatin (Lipitot); fluvastatin (Lescol); lovastatin (Mevacor); pravastatin (Pravachol); and simvastatin (Zocor). Lovastatin, the first drug in the statin family, was originally isolated from red yeast rice. |
Andreas Moritz
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 So yes, current edicts stipulate cholesterol testing and treatment for young adults and even children! The statin drugs that doctors use to push cholesterol levels down are LIPITOR (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), and Pravachol (pravastatin). If you decide to follow your doctor's advice and take one of these drugs, make certain to read the list of side effects so that you know the risks you are taking. |
David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes
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 Herb/Drug Interactions: Avoid use with hepatotoxic medications such as acetaminophen, tetracycline, and statin drugs.
Selected Research Study
Progress of Study on Brain Protective Effect and Mechanism of Polygonum multiflorum (Wang and Wang 2005).
In this paper, researchers reviewed the various studies on the neuroprotective effects of he shou wu. They determined that it has antioxidant activity and that, in some ways, it mimics medications that act as calcium channel blockers, cholinesterase inhibitors, and cholinomimetic medications. |
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