Are you putting yourself at risk by taking statins if you do not have cardiovascular disease?
Autoimmune Effects of Medications
Lower Diabetes Risk With Vitamin C-Rich Diet
Is Lead Poisoning Causing Your Problems?

Are you putting yourself at risk by taking statins if you do not have cardiovascular disease?(top)

Many take statins religiously, but their faith in these cholesterol-lowering drugs may be seriously misplaced.

In a recent publication of pooled data from eight published trials that included 40,000 subjects, Dr. J.M. Wright’s analysis suggests that statins should not be prescribed for true primary prevention for women of any age, nor for men older than 69 years.

High-risk men aged 30-69 years need to know that about 50 patients need to be treated for five years to prevent one coronary event. For adults between the ages of 30 and 80 years who already have occlusive vascular disease, however, there is no controversy that statins confer cardiovascular mortality benefit.

Historically, little was done about elevated cholesterol levels until the National Institute of Health in 1984 went on record advocating screening for hypercholesterolemia and urging aggressive treatment for those at high risk. The public is now brainwashed into the misconception that managing elevated cholesterol is the only factor in preventing coronary disease.

Here are some facts you may want to know:
1. Not everyone with high cholesterol has heart disease, and not everyone with low cholesterol is free from heart disease.
2. Too often we just treat numbers and not the pathophysiology and the person.
3. In some groups of patients, statins cause serious unrecognized harm, which negates their small benefit. Ten to fifteen percent of statin users develop side effects including muscle pain, cognitive impairment, and sexual dysfunction, and some rare cases of hemorrhagic stroke and interstitial pneumonitis are related to statin use.
4. Lifestyle choices such as adhering to a Mediterranean diet, regularly exercising, not smoking and reducing stress are the ideal foundation for primary and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD) and diabetes mellitus.
5. Even with aggressive LDL lowering, if the hs-CRP is greater than two, the risk of cardiovascular disease is increased. Thus, we should really look at the multifactorial nature of CAD.

Autoimmune Effects of Medications(top)
Auto-antibodies and lupus-like syndromes can develop weeks or months following the use of certain medications such as minocycline, sulfasalazine, statins, arimidex, tamoxifen, and TNF inhibitors. If you are taking medications and you develop arthritis and muscle and joint aches and pains, please check with your physician. Discontinuing the medications should resolve the symptoms, though the antibodies may persist in your blood for months or years.

Comment: Patients frequently tell me that they think that they have aches and pains and arthritis because they are getting old. This is far from the truth. Your aches and pains are symptoms, your body’s way of telling you something is not right. You have to find the cause and not use a bandage like Aleve or ibuprofen to dull the symptoms.

Lower Diabetes Risk With Vitamin C-Rich Diet(top)
A study of over 20,000 men and women for 12 years found that men and women who consumed 459 grams of fruits and 550 grams of vegetables per day had a 22% reduction in their risk of developing adult onset diabetes, compared to those who consumed the lowest amounts of fruits and vegetables (289 and 382 grams per day). It is not the fiber content of the fruits and vegetables per se that contributes to the reduced risk, but perhaps the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that possess antioxidant activity.

Comment: Again, we are reminded of the enormous health value of five to seven helpings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day in our food plan. If you analyze all the different “diets” out there, there is an underlying similarity in that they all recommend healthy helpings of fruits and vegetables. Maybe that is why they all “work.”

Is Lead Poisoning Causing Your Problems? (top)
Nearly 40% of us have toxic lead levels in our bodies and are not aware of it. The symptoms are varied and seemingly unrelated: tremors, headaches, depression, memory difficulties, and low sex drive. High lead levels are associated with heart disease, kidney disease, hypertension in women in menopause, autism, ADD and developmental disorders. We live in a polluted environment and toxic metals are a serious threat to our health.

Comment: Are you ready to get yourself checked, especially if you have a nagging problem that is not solved or you simply want to optimize your health?