What doctors arent telling you about higher doses of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs

For the last decade or so, conventional medicine has been prescribing statin drugs to reduce high cholesterol levels. Now it may be that cholesterol numbers werent falling fast enough or because drug company profits werent rising fast enough, but recently, doctors have been encouraging people to use even higher doses of statin medications to bring bad cholesterol levels down even further. And in fact, research shows this to be extremely effective at lowering those numbers.

What the doctors dont tell you, however, and what many dont even know, is that taking higher doses of statin drugs hasnt been shown to extend your life any longer than taking normal doses. And after all, whats the point in risking the increased side effects such as liver damage, sexual dysfunction and decreased insulin sensitivity to name just a few if theres no long-term benefit? 

The problem is that conventional doctors arent taught to look at mortality rates. As US physician Dr. Bob Mendelsohn, an Illinois paediatrician and author of several books on the natural approach to health, said back in the 1970s: When youre looking at any medical study, dont just look at what the authors want you to look at; always look at the funeral rates, too.

He continued, It doesnt just matter if blood pressure or cholesterol levels went down more in the drug group than the placebo group. It also matters whether more people died in the drug group than in the placebo group. If they did, then who cares if the blood pressure or cholesterol was lower? The mortician?

As sensible as it was, Dr. Mendelsohns point is still not taught as part of medical training today. Yet it applies as much in the 21st century as it did then.

Is lower cholesterol worth these risks?

The study that conventional medicine references to support using higher doses of statin drugs was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year. The six-year study involved 8,888 randomly selected patients with histories of heart attacks who received either a high dose (80 milligrams per day) of a recently patented statin drug, or a normal dose (20 milligrams per day) of a competing statin drug whose patent was soon to expire (JAMA, 2005 Nov 16; 294(19):2437-45).

First of all, you dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the higher dose of the newer drug would produce lower cholesterol levels. Second, the study doesnt take into account the funeral rate of the patients involved.       

   
A Dr. Mendelsohn-style reading of the actual statistics printed in the report shows that the funeral rate over the six years of the study was basically the same in both groups (Ibid, pages 2441-2442). In the normal dose group, 218 people (4.9 percent) died from cardiovascular disease. In the high dose group, 223 people (5 percent) died from cardiovascular disease. Yes, theres a very slight difference, but any difference at all is entirely irrelevant to the point: Higher doses wont make you live longer.

In addition, the high-dose group experienced an eight-fold increase in significant liver enzyme elevations (426 vs. 186) which can cause liver dysfunction, and a considerably higher number of people stopped treatment for significant adverse effects (61 vs. 7). The study did not specifically list the significant adverse events. Yet despite these facts, Dr. Christopher Cannon of the Harvard Medical School still urges people to use high-dose statins, saying that lower cholesterol is better. Better than what?

You cant help but think So what? if the bad cholesterol was lower in the high dose group. If your doctor actually told you that it wouldnt increase your chances of living longer, that more people quit treatment due to adverse effects, and that elevations of liver enzymes were eight times higher, wouldnt you wonder why your doctor even bothered to discuss high-dose statins at all?

A safer way to protect against heart attacks

For the most effective way to protect your heart, you need to look at the issue from a different perspective one a mainstream medical doctor may not have told you about.

While cholesterol is an important part of the heart-health equation, its not the only factor you should consider. Another well-established, major cardiovascular risk factor is inflammation. And the best and most effective way to reduce inflammation everywhere in your body including your cardiovascular system is to consume omega-3 fatty acids. You can get them from eating fatty fish like tuna, salmon, or mackerel or by taking 1 or 2 tablespoons of fish oil daily.

The latter is an extremely effective and fast way of getting C-reactive protein (CRP, a marker of cardiovascular inflammation) levels back to normal. You should always take fish oil supplements with 400 to 800 IU of mixed tocopherols in order to keep the fish oil from breaking down too quickly. As an added bonus, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil also help reduce cholesterol levels and they do it much more safely than statin medications.

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine analysed the results of 97 controlled trials involving 276,116 randomly selected individuals taking various lipid-lowering agents (including statins and omega-3 fatty acids) (Arch Intern Med. 2005 Apr 11;165(7):725-30).

Compared with control groups (whose risk factor is arbitrarily assigned a value of 1.0), the risk for cardiac mortality (the funeral rate from heart-related causes) in the omega-3 fatty acid group was lower than that of the statin group (at 0.68 vs. 0.78). In fact, the risk for overall mortality (deaths from all causes) was also lower in the omega-3 group (at 0.77 vs. 0.87).

Omega-3 fatty acids may not lower cholesterol as dramatically as statins do, but, given the choice, would you opt for the treatment that promises you a lower cholesterol level or a lower funeral rate?