Chattin About Statins

As many of you know, I'm a nurse.  If you know that, you probably know that my in-law's own a gym called Personal Performance.   If you know that, you probably also know that they are very passionate about natural-living.  By this I mean eating all natural foods, not using medications, fitness, nutrition, spiritual health, and being knowledgeable about our world/environment and how it affects us in both negative and positive ways.  I've had many opportunities to talk with them and others that try to live the same.  I think in our society, we are very trusting of the medical system and doctors that we can sell ourselves short in many instances.  With the invent of the internet, many people are now able to look at clinical studies online, research not only all of their medications, but also adverse effects of long-term usage of certain medications.

There is one group of medications that have been prescribed for years, but researches are now finding that it can be extremely toxic to us.  Many people now take statin drugs (Zocor, Lipitor, Levacor, etc) in an effort to reduce their cholesterol.  With heart disease being the #1 killer of women in American, cholesterol has gotten a bad rap.  And as a society, yes, we do consume too much BAD cholesterol.  But there are two kinds of cholesterol.. LDLs and HDLs.  Americans typically are low on the good stuff (HDLs) and high on the bad stuff (LDLs).  Anyways, the way these medications work is by simply poising the liver so that it does not produce cholesterol.  However, cholesterol is very, very necessary.

Wiki cholesterol definition:  Cholesterol is a waxy steroid of fat that is manufactured in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals.  It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes. It is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity.

So basically, we need this stuff for our cells to function.  However, I think it is safe to assume that preventing our livers from producing this substance in the first place can have some major negative, long-term effects.  We need it for our cells to live and function ... but if we produce too much of it, it builds up on our vessel walls.. so let's keep our liver from producing it?  But wait.  We need it.. confusing.

Obviously there is a huge problem in America with everyone consuming too much bad cholesterol in our diet.  Duhs.  So obviously it's great if we have less so that there is less building up on our arteries (which manifests itself into coronary artery disease, strokes, heart attacks, etc.)   But what happened to a diet that doesn't over-do it with processed fats and cause these high levels.  It's like saying that it's okay to eat lots of bad cholesterol if you just take this pill that prevents your liver from making it.  Why do we have to take pills with major adverse effects?  It's definitely easier to get a script every month for Zocor than to decrease the amount of processed, unnatural fats in our diet and deny ourselves of that delicious slice of Pizza Hut pizza, that delectable McDouble, or those Tyson chicken nugs....denying ourselves of deliciousness is hard, but it will keep yourself from definite and certain major health problems.

So, here are some interesting articles talking about the dangers of these drugs that are now being clinically documented.  Enjoy!

Researchers Document the Dangers of Statins
Statins Kill Your Brain
Dangers of rosuvastatin identified before and after FDA approval
The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol Lowering Drugs (this one is a book)
A Bad Week for Statins (this is a doctor's blog, references a week various news articles related to the new evidence outlining the dangers of these drugs)

I could add like 10 more, but I just got off a 12 hour shift and I'm getting sleepy and grumpy.  So please check this stuff out, do some research for yourself, Google various statin topics, etc.  I'm not the one with all the right answers.  I've had an opportunity to see the medical field from a bedside nurse's eye, but also have had a lot of exposure to natural-living and through that been able to see some inconsistencies and discrepancies with in our health care system in America.

It's important to be personally informed about your health, meds, and nutrition so that you are taking care of yourself!  I see so many people that have not taken care of themselves, or not questioned the medications their on, their diet, their lifestyles.. and a lot of these people end up paying the price when they're 65, 70, and into their 80's having open heart surgery to get multiple coronary arteries bypassed because they're completely occluded.

 Okay.  Goodnight at 9am, time for bed :-)