I’ve made the argument many times, that statin drugs do more harm than good.
That they represent the mass poisoning of middle-aged and older men and women. Mass poisoning by big Pharma.
The most pathetic thing is this. If you are a doctor, and you do not prescribe statins to somebody who has high cholesterol, you could be cited by your medical board, reprimanded, found guilty of not following the standard of care, and you could lose your license.
Doctors have very little power in this world because the drug companies determine the standard of care largely.
They are constantly promoting to doctors, working on new chemicals, chemicals that cost more, and then they are spending billions of dollars to propagandize and get the doctors on board as to the standard of care. Which is always to prescribe the new drugs, not the old drugs.
Which is always to prescribe the new drugs, not the old drugs.
And of course, there is no money in supplements, so the drug companies harangue and harass doctors who prescribe supplements instead of big Pharma medications.
I see doctors all the time that are getting reprimanded for recommending supplements, so this study is especially important because it’s been known for many years, that cholesterol is good and helpful.
That people with higher cholesterol survive and thrive. The higher cholesterol actually brings greater longevity, healthier life, and better health altogether.
That people with higher cholesterol survive and thrive. The higher cholesterol actually brings greater longevity, healthier life, and better health altogether.
If this is known, then why are doctors still almost required to prescribe statin drugs to almost every man or woman alive?
Especially when you have this study. This is the gold standard study, the random controlled trial.
And you have here, I think, researchers who genuinely believed in the cholesterol-heart disease hypothesis.
And they really didn’t expect the study to come out the way it did.
They start out by making sure that they nod to the Big Pharma Gods:
“Lowering of LDL cholesterol levels has been established as an effective therapy for patients with ischemic heart disease or equivalent high-risk status. Recent clinical trials have suggested that intensive versus standard lipid-lowering therapy with the goal of achieving LDL cholesterol levels as low as 70 mg/dL provides for additional benefit in some patient populations”
But then they did the study. It doesn’t turn out that way.
They selected a random group and gave them all pills. Some of the pills had Atorvastatin in various dosages, and some of the pills were just sugar pills.
Neither the doctors nor the patients knew which pills are which. In other words, this was a randomized controlled double-blind trial, the best sort of trial that there is.
The conclusions were stunning
The researchers were looking for evidence of a reversal in the hardening of the arteries. Coronary atherosclerotic calcification.
Coronary atherosclerotic calcification.
Otherwise, what’s the point of taking these pills? These pills are supposed to clean out your arteries. They’re supposed to lower the amount of plaque in the arteries. They’re supposed to make the arteries clearer, so the arteries feed blood better to the heart. At least, that’s how they’re sold. That’s how they’re presented.
In return for this benefit, so-called, the patients have to endure brain fog, muscle problems and a host of side effects that don’t end even when you stop taking the drug.
But…
There was no benefit to the Lipitor. None.
We did not observe a relationship between on-treatment LDL cholesterol levels and the progression of calcified coronary atherosclerosis. Over a period of 12 months, intensive atorvastatin therapy was unable to attenuate…progression
Now to be completely fair, they were trying to use intensive laboratory therapy, as a way to reverse atherosclerosis. And it doesn’t work. The drug companies have to argue that it would take longer than one year to show a result. Or the dosages should be lower, which makes no sense. They are trying to show that higher dosages do a quicker and better job, of clearing the arteries.
But instead, they show that even high dosages of statins do not clear the arteries.
But as they point out, perhaps if they had had longer, or perhaps if the gods were kinder, these trials would have shown the expected result. But they did not.
So why the heck are doctors still prescribing all the statin drugs?
Sadly, it’s the standard of care, because big Pharma says so.
This is the story with most of the drugs that doctors are prescribing today. It’s not the doctors fault. He’s between a rock and a hard place. He has to meet the standard of care.
In the standard of care results in medications that not only don’t work, but are loaded with side effects, extremely expensive, and bottom line, do not do what they say they are supposed to do.
If you’re taking statins, you may want to reconsider
You also may want to make sure you’re taking enough coenzyme Q10, and you might want to stop taking fish oil, and stop eating vegetable oil.
All these steps are positive ones on the way to having a healthier heart, and healthier arteries.
Citations
Effect of Intensive Versus Standard Lipid-Lowering Treatment With Atorvastatin on the Progression of Calcified Coronary Atherosclerosis Over 12 Months
A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind Trial
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/113/3/427.full
Click for more information on Effect of Intensive Lipid-Lowering Treatment, for Medicine information, or for information about Statin Drugs.