9 Times out of 10, Cholesterol Meds are a Waste of Time
The plaque that can build up in your blood vessels is made out of cholesterol. It can detach from the vessel wall, causing a blockage which is the beginning of a heart attack or stroke.
But if cholesterol is the main cause of heart disease, we’d have it licked by now, right? Cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, are the #2 most prescribed medication in the US, second only to thyroid meds. Yet cardio-vascular disease (CVD) is still the #1 cause of death in the US. Can we really say this is working?
Is it the “bad” cholesterol causing this? Healthy fats glide right through and actually help keep your blood vessels clear. LDL cholesterol (the “bad guy”) is needed too. LDL moves nutrition to your cells and also is what repairs tears in your vessel walls.
We need cholesterol to make hormones, too. Cholesterol is an important part of synthesizing estrogen, progesterone, and vitamin D. Every cell of your body uses cholesterol.
In the late 1990s, the average American’s cholesterol reading was around 204. Now the average is around 189. So do we have healthier hearts?
The guidelines for prescribing the medications keep changing too. For statin drugs, as well as hypertension drugs. If you want to sell more drugs, you lower the limits that increase the number people of “sick” people. Before 1984, the upper limit for cholesterol was 300. If you want to sell more drugs, just lower the limit, right? Then more people “need” it.
One of the original and often-sited studies on cholesterol (the Framingham study) found that people with grossly elevated cholesterol (> 300) who are more at risk of CVD. This type of cholesterol problem is usually genetic (familial hypercholesterolemia) and happens in about 1 out of 300 people.
Another study, one of the most thorough of its type, found that people with slightly elevated cholesterol (between 220-229) lived the longest.
Many studies that show dietary fats correlating with cardiovascular disease are faulty because they’re only tracking one or two dietary factors (like eggs and red meat).
If we really want to track the effect of diet on health, we need to track more variables like –
1. Quality of the meat and eggs (grass-fed beef only, free range eggs only). Healthy oils and fats can help keep your cholesterol numbers in check!
2. Amount of vegetables and fresh fruits eaten daily (minimum of 6 servings per day of a wide variety)
3. Refined and processed foods eaten (should be very low to none)
Statin drugs reduce your body’s ability to make CoQ10.
Blocking your Liver’s ability to make cholesterol impairs enzyme CoQ10 which enables muscle function (including your heart muscle!). Taking statins is linked to muscle pain in 75% of people who take it.
High triglycerides are not so much related to dietary fat intake, but to high carbohydrate intake. The carbs that your body doesn’t need for energy get stored in your liver in the form of glycogen. If your diet relies heavily on things like sugar, refined grains, and alcohol, those glycogen stores get full, and the excess amount gets turned into triglycerides. High triglycerides also correlate with increased levels of CVD.
This is something you can turn around with dietary changes, herbs, and supplements. But it does take an effort.
Solutions for Healthy Cholesterol
#1. Healthier blood vessels
If the blood vessel walls are strong, they will not tear and therefore not require cholesterol plaque to repair. The best way to ensure healthy blood vessel walls period (including treatment of varicose veins and bleeding disorders) is a diet rich in rutin, like buckwheat and apples.
#2. Lower your carbohydrate intake (especially sugars of all types and processed foods and white grains)
Refined carbs, transfatty acids from rancid vegetable oils, and processed foods, and the overall quantity of them relate to inflammation in your body. Cardiovascular disease is a disease of inflammation, not a disease from eggs. Inflammation is from eating an unnatural diet. The natural human has fats of all types, including animal fats like bacon and butter and eggs, salt, plenty and fresh water, and foods that grow from the earth.
#3. Heart-to-Heart connections
In Chinese medicine, your Heart is more than a physical organ. It’s your mind. (Notice we don’t say we had a “brain-to-brain talk.”) It’s your emotional center that allows you to feel joy. Studies have shown that strong social connections are actually a bigger prediction of heart health than body weight.