Natural Health Awareness

(If you torture data sufficiently, it will confess to almost anything. (Prof. Fred Menger))

If your car repair workshop told you to reduce the amount of oil in the engine of your car to well below the minimum level on the dipstick, I am willing to bet that even the most “non car savvy” of you might be a tad suspicious.

If they went on to tell you the measure will prevent engine seizures and improve control of the engine, you may suspect an ulterior motive! A call to customer services of the motor manufacturer would soon reveal this to all be untrue. But, medical “experts” can tell us equally outrageous tales regarding our health and we do not question them at all!

As I write this on 28th May 2008, the BBC is reporting “The number of adults prescribed cholesterol-busting statin drugs in England and Wales is set to soar under new national guidelines.” The statement goes on to say that The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is asking GPs  to trawl through patient records to pick out “high-risk” patients who would benefit from taking statins.

Is it a coincidence that Dr John Robson, a GP and chair of the guideline group in NICE, received an award from Pfizer in 2004? Pfizer is a major US based manufacturer of statin drugs making billions of dollars of profits every year.

Let me declare my position. I am a layman. I do not hold a professional medical qualification. I am an intelligent and enquiring individual concerned about yours and my health. I therefore feel justified in challenging the published opinions of “experts” who seem to be perpetuating myths. I am not accusing them of telling barefaced lies. They probably believe they are doing the best they can.

 But, let’s face it, most substances produced by pharmaceutical companies are alien substances to our bodies. Many of them are toxic. The number of people who actually die from either misdiagnosis or so-called side effects of drugs is alarming.

Please hear this! I am not anti-drug. Now this may surprise you, but I believe there is a place for drugs in emergency and short term treatment. You see I know what it is like to have a health scare from personal experience. The frame of mind at the time is possibly not cool and ready to spend a few days in research for natural alternatives! The first available appointment with the doctor is sought or worse you may find yourself in the emergency department of a hospital.

There is no doubt that the expert attention of medical professionals and the correct use of drugs can and does save lives. What “Natural-Health-Awareness.com” is about, is the twofold goal of raising the awareness of all individuals so that they can and should do more for themselves. Actually take responsibility for their health either post an event or be taking preventative measures that ward off the possibility of a health scare.

The problem as I see it and it is a view that is becoming widely held, is that our doctors only have the prescription of drugs as an answer to most problems. Yes, I know that is a generalisation and there are always exceptions but that is the general rule. If you do not to take drugs long term, where do you get advice on nutrition and lifestyle etc? Much of the advice from the NHS, and other institutions is based on outdated information especially regarding nutrition.

April 2008, in the Harvard Health Letter published by the Harvard Medical School, an article appeared entitled “You Don’t Have to Take a Pill! This surprising but pleasing article reports that a growing number of studies are showing that simple lifestyle changes including correct nutrition and exercise are effective remedies to combat several diseases. The list discussed was:-

• Arthritis
• Cholesterol (and heart disease, our inclusion.Ed.)
• Cognitive decline
• Depression
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Osteoporosis

All of these are or will be addressed on our website but for now in an unbiased way let us look at a few facts that I have been able to research in the arena of statination.

1.  Cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease. This is seemingly becoming an accepted fact in the scientific and medical community. Cholesterol is a lipid or molecule that is an essential building block in the reproduction of cells. It is a waxy substance that is not water soluble in blood so from where it is manufactured in the liver, it gets carried around the body by lipoproteins. Cholesterol is essential in the body in the manufacture of hormones and cells as well as the repair and maintenance of cells.
2. There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” cholesterol. Your doctor will tell you that LDL (low density lipoproteins) is bad cholesterol and that HDL (high density lipoproteins) is good cholesterol. LDL transports cholesterol to tissue. HDL returns it to the liver for reuse or excretion.
3. Corrected nutrition is the preventative measure of choice. Small size LDL is associated with heart disease as they can get stuck between the cells that line the arteries. They can get rancid and cause inflammation. Scar tissue can build up and narrow the arteries causing heart attacks and strokes. The only known good way to regulate LDL particles is to eat well.
4. Statin drugs may be misunderstood. There is a group of scientists and doctors who believe that the actual beneficial action of statins reduces inflammation and it is not the reduction of cholesterol that provides benefit. So is there a case for taking them anyway? Well due to the possible reduction in inflammation and the reduced propensity for narrowing arteries, heart attacks will decrease. Unfortunately, the evidence is that whilst death due to heart disease goes down in people taking statins, death from other causes goes up!

Concluded in Part two.

Part two of our report continued -:
Many adverse effects recognised in the post-marketing surveillance process, and their frequency is likely to be understated because few doctors report them. Nevertheless, many unknown potential side effects from statins have already been reported
Heart Failure
All statins inhibit the synthesis of hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase, an enzyme involved in synthesis of the precursor of cholesterol and other important molecules such as coenzyme Q10, vital for mitochondrial energy production. Thus statins lower plasma Q10 concentrations and worsen cardiac function in patients with heart failure, and oral coenzyme Q10 can improve or prevent this serious complication.
Heart failure has not been reported with statins, possibly because it has been seen to be the result of the primary disease rather than an adverse effect but also because patients with imminent or manifest congestive failure are routinely excluded from statin trials. In addition, there is a likelihood that statins have an effect that is similar to reducing stress levels in blood vessels. This is an entirely different situation to the mainstream belief that reducing cholesterol reduces death from heart attack.
Mental and Neurological Symptoms
Cholesterol is vital for the development and function of the brain. It is therefore unsurprising that reduced concentrations may produce mental and neurological complaints such as severe irritability, aggressive behaviour, suicidal impulses, cognitive impairment, memory loss, global amnesia, polyneuropathy, and erectile dysfunction.In many cases the symptoms were reversible and re-occurred after re-challenge. None of these side effects are mentioned on the product labels or information inserts for Statins
One patient reports, after taking statins she developed chronic insomnia that she still has not recovered from. Shortly after that, she developed peripheral neuropathy a numbness and tingling in her feet. At that same time she began to have intermittent heart palpitations a sort of “fight or flight” syndrome. She reports it was as if she was having anxiety symptoms without any mental cause.

It was also noticed that she had become more irritable with people around her. Over a period of two years of taking statins, she had also developed a chronic sense of exhaustion, and began to experience deterioration in her cognitive abilities. She began to have trouble remembering words for things or people’s names. Her memory began to go she says I could read a whole book and then have only the vaguest idea afterwards what I had read.

She I also suffered intermittent loss of sexual libido. Because the side effects of the statins are not widely publicized, she was not aware of them. It seems she then was then given a book to read called “Secrets of Serotonin.”

That book noted that statins were correlated with a higher incidence of death due to suicide, accidents and violence. If the statins exacerbate any tendencies towards depression or anxiety or cause mental confusion, this would explain those results. That was her first inkling that Zocor might be the cause of her various unexplained symptoms and mental deterioration. She has now taken herself off Statins

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

In the UK today, the government has announced full health screening for people over 40 (0r some of them!)

According to the BBC , “Ministers will say that computer modelling shows that offering the checks to those aged 40 to 74 - approximately a third of the population - will save 2,000 lives a year.  They will say that each person who has a check will receive a personal report setting out their risk of getting the conditions and guidance on how to prevent them.  This may include access to programmes, such as weight loss and smoking cessation clinics, and prescriptions for drugs such as cholesterol-busting statins”.

This is a really good initiative to get everyone to be more aware of their own health. It is certain many people will be grateful to have the state of their health detailed for them. There will be others who are more aware and still others who knowing they are out of condition will shy away from the certain bad news.

But look at the end of last paragraph of the statement! The stale old response! The establishment seems to have no idea that, despite current findings from research, higher cholesterol is merely a symptom  of things going wrong that could eventually lead to heart disease. Cholesterol in itself is essential to the healthy functioning of the body and the unnaturally low levels that are the current guidelines are in question.  So yet again, only the pharmaceutical companies stand to be the greatest beneficiaries of this move, adding to their already multi-billion dollars of profit selling statins.

In part two of this post I will detail information that you need to be aware of to keep on the right track.