How many people do you know who are on a cholesterol lowering medications (Lipitor, Crestor, Vicor, etc)?  Do you know what the function of these drugs do?  Do you know what the side effects are?  Do you know any other healthy alternatives that will help regulate your cholesterol levels to a number where your body desires it to be?

 First, let’s talk about how cholesterol medications are oversold, based upon bad science and don’t truly state the facts of what they do.  Did you know 57 million Americans are on some kind of statin drug?  Let’s put this into perspective on how this is more of a business rather than promoting health.  The average prescription for a statin drug per month is about $90.00.  In 2007, 200 million prescriptions were written (one month supply).   How much money was made in sales for these statin drugs?  $37 billion dollars ($37,000,000,000.00).  This is over $3 billion dollars a month.  This is not in one year, but one month.  I always ask my practice members, if these drugs were designed to work and help improve another’s heart health, why would they be making $3.8 billion dollars per month?  This is why you see all the advertisements on TV for Lipitor, Crestor, Zicor and so forth.  The commercials are designed so friendly that they seem harmless.  Let us talk about the facts of how harmful they truly are.

First, we will talk about how Statin drugs reduce cholesterol.  When you take these medications, it will tell your liver to reduce the production of cholesterol.  When this occurs, the body will not be able to regulate its demands on cholesterol since it cannot produce much.  An individual’s source of cholesterol will have to be found in their diet and if we are talking about the average American diet, then we all know they are consuming bad fats and bad cholesterol.

When big pharmaceutical companies market these statin drugs, they will talk about how it helps prevent heart disease.  Here is the beginning of bad science.  Did you know, a statin drug reduces the risk of a heart attack not by 50% but by 1% (one person out of 100).  you know that taking statin drugs actually would weaken one’s heart?  The enzyme that statins stop the liver from producing, does not only make cholesterol but it makes a very vital nutrient and antioxidant that is found in all our cells, but heavily dense concentrations in the heart.  This antioxidant is called, CoQu10. CoQu10 is one of our energy sources and one of the things the body has an issue producing when under much stress.  Click the link here for benefits of CoQu10. 

There are other side effects to what statin medications do to our body.  As a chiropractor, when I see a patient with muscle aches or low back pain, the first thing I look for is to see if they are on a statin drug.  The reason behind this is being on a statin drug weakens muscles in our body and actually the aching aspect is due to our muscles breaking down.  When we have this happening, it puts the kidneys into overtime to prevent the body becoming too acidic that will end up creating havoc on all our organs, cells, and tissues.  Here is a list of what statin drugs actually do to our body.  This is something that is not probable but is actually happening.  It takes a long time to see the damages caused by a statin drug in the blood or other areas of the body.

1. Liver Damage

2. Kidney Failure

3. Cataracts

4. Diabetes (Increase risk by 9%)

5. Muscle Damage

6. Eye Disorders

So, if this is health, why would it cause more harm than good?  What is the scary part for me, Crestor can be prescribed to anyone, no matter if they have a cholesterol level of 150 or 400.  So, if you or someone you know is taking these types of drugs, you are fully aware of what these are doing to your body.  It is not to a degree of maybe this is occurring but exactly to the point of it is and this is the outcome.  There are ways you can naturally decrease your cholesterol that is designed for you. In the next part series on cholesterol and statins, we will be talking about the benefit of cholesterol, its role and function within the body and why we need it!  In our third part series, we will give you simple guidelines to help you lower your cholesterol.  Keep in tune and until next time.

NAMASTE!