Statins, prescribed to lower blood-cholesterol levels, have been associated with a wide range of complications and side effects including:
• muscle weakness and pain
• rhabdomyolysis, a potentially fatal condition involving a breakdown of muscle fibers
• a 14-fold increase in peripheral neuropathy, which can cause severe pain and crippling weakness in the limbs
• a severe deficiency of the critical energy compound CoQ10, which can lead to fatigue, poor mental function, confusion, and heart failure
Despite this, these drugs are still being treated as though they are safe. How can this be?
Too often, physicians forget about treating the whole person when promoting and prescribing such powerful drugs. Rather, they focus on a single condition — such as cardiovascular disease. But who would want to trade a slight reduction in risk of heart disease for Parkinson’s, or even worse, a fatal disease such as ALS?
Every day, in television advertisements, we are told that anti-platelet drugs like Plavix will protect us against heart attack and stroke. But what’s lost in the low-level garble at the end of these captivating advertisements is that anti-platelet drugs are also associated with a significant risk of potentially fatal hematological disorders, including leukemia.
Let’s say you have an elevated cholesterol level, and your tests show you have a mild constriction of your right carotid artery. Would you trade leukemia for a promise of a 2 percent to 3 percent reduction in your risk of stroke? I wouldn’t. Yet it happens every day. A friend of mine who took an anti-platelet drug died of leukemia.
Worse, in many cases there are natural alternatives that can reduce risk far better than prescription drugs. For example, studies on heart attack risk clearly show that the benefit of statins in reducing heart attack death is no better than taking an aspirin a day.
In fact, the whole cholesterol theory of atherosclerosis is built on an edifice of lies, distortions, and manipulation of scientific data.
Despite the fact that it is now accepted that atherosclerosis, and hence heart attacks and strokes, are caused by chronic low-grade inflammation, we still have the medical elite insisting that we should lower cholesterol levels to dangerously low levels.
What’s more, there are a number of naturally occurring compounds that have better anti-inflammatory effects and are far safer than statins.
Animal studies using curcumin, quercetin, vitamin E, vitamin C, and a host of other compounds have shown a powerful inhibition of atherosclerosis. Better yet, unlike statins, these compounds also powerfully inhibit cancer, protect the brain, reduce inflammation and free radical damage throughout the body, and enhance the function of the endothelium — the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels — which is the target of all anti-atherosclerosis treatments. For the latest information on how to protect your heart, see my report "New Heart Revelations".
Statins have been around for 20 years. What with all the hype (and prescriptions), you’d expect the heart attack death rate would have fallen dramatically. But it has remained at the same level for two decades. Yet people are so affected by propaganda that they’re practically terrified not to take the statins their physicians prescribe.
You should question your doctors closely and ask to see the studies that support their diagnoses. If they can’t show them to you, you need another opinion. It’s your life; in the end, only you can protect it. For a detailed discussion of how to take charge of your health, see my newsletter "Use Prevention to Take Control of Your Healthcare."
For more of Dr. Blaylock’s weekly tips, go here to view the archive.
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