Statins are finally getting the criticism they deserve. Fixated on cholesterol numbers, the party line has been to push statins on everyone. Like most fixations, that bias is narrow-minded, ill-informed and just plain unhealthy. When we think more carefully and critically, common sense is in agreement with science that shows we can do better than statins.
Statins do a lot more than just lowering cholesterol. Some of that, like reducing vascular inflammation, is good, and might even be the source of much of the benefit of statins. Many other effects of statins are very undesirable.
Ignore the concerns about liver, muscle, eye and brain damage sometimes caused by statins. The way that statin drugs work is by blocking your body’s ability to create hormones and CoQ10. Ironically CoQ10 is essential to the heart, as well as other important bodily functions. Many of the reported adverse effects of statins appear to be the consequence of statins blocking the formation of CoQ10. Of course, all of those other hormones, including sex hormones and vitamin D, are kind of important as well.
Statins also certainly raise the risk of diabetes. Diabetes is itself an important contributor to heart disease. A new study has found that the biological pathway whereby statins cause diabetes, is the same pathway that lowers cholesterol. In other words, there is no way to separate these impacts. Statins must increase the risk of diabetes to lower cholesterol.
It is extremely important for you to understand that heart disease is not just about cholesterol. Cholesterol levels don’t predict deaths from heart disease very well. There is correlation, but cholesterol is less important than other factors. Many people die of heart attacks, despite having normal cholesterol. My father was told his cholesterol level was normal 6 months before he died at age 47 of a heart attack. At autopsy, his heart also showed evidence of a prior heart attack, one that he never knew he had.
There is now no doubt about it. Statins give some people diabetes and make some people gain weight. Neither is good if the goal is to prevent heart disease. If you really care about being healthy and want to reduce your risk of heart disease, stop obsessing about your cholesterol levels. Exercise, healthy diet, avoiding nasty chemicals (including cigarettes) and being calm, are the effective steps to reduce heart disease. The “side effects” of these essential health habits, the accidental consequences, will be to make you healthier, stronger and probably happier. That is better than statins for sure.