Statins: My Two Cents on a Trillion Dollar Drug

By: Matthew Fantazzi

Should it come as any surprise at this point that one of the most profitable medications that big pharma has ever produced is ineffective at treating the condition it is prescribed for and comes with a laundry list of side effects that are underplayed, or outright ignored? Not if you've been following this blog. In 2020 drugs like Lipitor, Crestor, and the family of drugs known as statins became a 1 trillion-dollar market. These drugs are used to treat high cholesterol, because that's a really bad thing for your health and leads to heart attacks, right? Well, buckle-up because we're going to take down one of the biggest pharma myths they have parlayed into a fortune at the expense of American's wallet and wellbeing. Links to sources will be posted at the bottom.

My last post was about the myth that shaped nutrition for the last 70 years, that lie had a trickledown effect that reached far and wide. Dietary fat has become associated with high cholesterol, which then leads to heart disease as we all know. Except that this is just another bit of pharmacological dogma that has been perpetuated by pharma companies and the Rockefeller medical establishment that controls medical education and steers things clear of natural remedies in favor of drugs from the petrochemical industry. The drug companies found that it was very easy to create drugs that can affect cholesterol, creating a perfect opportunity for them to produce a cheap product they can point to as effective. Never mind that the effect its having isn't going to have the result that they are promising.

To understand why these drugs are so ineffective, first we need to understand what cholesterol is, and its role in the body is. Cholesterol has some critically important roles particularly in the nervous system and the brain where it is key to synthesizing myelin, the sheath that coats our neurons, its estimated 25% of our cholesterol is found in the brain. Cholesterol also makes up about 30% of our cell membranes and according to the Journal of Clinical investigation is essential to cell function. “This structurally fascinating lipid is utterly essential to the proper functioning of cells and organisms. Cholesterol, cholesterol metabolites, and immediate biosynthetic precursors of cholesterol play essential roles in cellular membrane physiology, dietary nutrient absorption, reproductive biology, stress responses, salt and water balance, and calcium metabolism.”

Cholesterol is also how we synthesize many of our critical hormones, including the steroid hormones like testosterone, progestogen, and estrogen.

When you hear your loved ones talk about what their doctor says about their cholesterol, they will talk about good cholesterol and bad cholesterol, or LDL and HDL, and from the doctors I have heard, there is no such thing as bad cholesterol. This seems to merely be the easiest number for them to manipulate, therefore they assign it some undue importance in their treatment. To be clear, that is conjecture on my part, I don't have anything to back that up, outside of a basic knowledge of pharma companies and their tactics. A study in Japan that was analyzing the increases in dietary fat consumption, and total cholesterol levels, that actually saw a decrease in heart disease and stroke over this same time appears to offer a contradiction to the common cholesterol trope. The study found no evidence that high cholesterol levels were an accurate predictor of heart disease. The best predictor was found to be triglyceride to HDL cholesterol ratio.

So, what risks are patients taking to treat elevated LDL's that isn't even indicative of an increased risk for heart disease? Statins have been known for a number of side effects, especially because these drugs are often prescribed for the remainder of a patient's life, taking anything every day for that length of time is going to have all kinds of effects. Over the course of decades these drugs may reduce cholesterol, but if we look at what the role of cholesterol is, the common side effects are not surprising. Statins can lead to type 2 diabetes due to an affect that it has on insulin released into the blood, ironically, T2D raises the risk of cardiac disease, the reason for taking them in the first place. This has an effect on metabolism, that can lead to obesity, also increasing risk of heart disease. Statins can also lead to neurological and nervous system conditions, decreased cognition, an increased risk of dementia. There is also a high percentage of statin patients that develop bipolar disorder, some studies are beginning to support this hypothesis because of the common mental health effects associated with the drugs.

As always consult with your doctor before discontinuing any medication but have that conversation quick because the consensus from the experts below is not to worry about high cholesterol, and if you do have high levels, it is the HDL to triglyceride that is going to indicate an elevated risk for heart disease if anything. Also ask your doctor about any action that can be taken to support the potential areas of concern when it comes to statin side effects on cognition, insulin resistance or tolerance, diabetes, any hormonal imbalances, and cell damage that may have occurred depending on how long you have been on the medication. These things can be caused by a number of things and statins could accelerate this process, but you may need to take other measures to fully support healing these conditions.

Hope that I could shed light on another pharma scam that is robbing patients of not only their hard-earned money, but more importantly their health and potentially time with their loved ones. Feel free to reach out with any questions at healthyourselfak@gmail.com and become a member to get all the latest blog posts to your email.

Sources: Articles, Studies, Videos

Dr. Mercola on Statins and Cholesterol