Natural Health Awareness

Those who are taking Statins to lower their cholesterol may well be confused about whether it is worth it or how safe they are. The drugs don’t benefit women or elderly men if they don’t have a cardiovascular problem, while for younger men, taking statins only slightly reduces the risk of heart attack if they’ve never had an attack.
However skeptics point to the risk of side effects if your chance of having heart disease is very small then the risks of side effects from a drug to stop it should also be very low. This suggests the benefits of statins for women and older men are almost non-existent, we need to consider if the risks still outweigh the benefits. There’s a multibillion-dollar industry ensuring that you hear all the good things about statins but none of the bad!
It’s common to find patients on the drugs who report trouble finding the right word or forgetting what task they are supposed to be doing, so should we be concerned with the effect of statins on our moods and memory there were also patients who were irritable, hostile and had short tempers while taking statins. Some even had road rage or homicidal impulses.
Reports show data on side effects is lacking because trials are designed to show the benefits of the drugs, and not to detect problems. It has come to light that two of the big statin trials deliberately excluded patients who had suffered side-effects in pre-trial tests, to then claim that the number of side-effects was low. Another study where patients with high levels of cholesterol, but no evidence of heart disease, were given the best-selling statin Lipitor. 71 per cent of them developed a problem with their heart muscle that goes with heart failure.
It was found giving them a supplement of 300mg of Q10 reversed the problem for over half of them many people now take Q10 along with statins as a precaution. If you are on statins and feel they may be causing muscle-related problems or brain fog, you should your doctor about stopping the drug or reducing the dose.
For those not at a high risk of heart attack there are plenty of diet and lifestyle options for improving the health of your heart without taking statins. The first is exercise recommended for reducing the risks, then get your doctor to check your levels of an amino acid called homocysteine. High levels are a risk factor for heart disease, independent of cholesterol.
To reduce homocysteine, increase your intake of B vitamins with green vegetables, or look for a supplement containing B6, folic acid and B12. You also could increase your intake of plant sterols, found in seeds, nuts, and beans, as well as soluble fibre found in oats barley and aubergines these also lower cholesterol
This is part one of a two part report which will follow shortly