In the United States alone, nearly $19 billion dollars are spent annually on statin drugs. And according to the cover story in the January 28 issue of Business Week magazine, statin drugs are “the best-selling medicines in history, used by more than 13 million Americans and an additional 12 million patients around the world.” The best-known statin drug, Lipitor, is the most prescribed drug ever in the world. Why? Because it lowers cholesterol.
For the past 70 years, high levels of cholesterol have been thought to damage the blood vessels, the damage appearing as bad spots called plaques.
In medical terms, the collective name for all those plaques is atherosclerosis or what was once called “hardening of the arteries.” In fact, because of high cholesterol, President Dwight Eisenhower was put on a low- cholesterol diet following his heart attack way back in 1955. In Ike’s situation, as well as the recent case of journalist Tim Russert, plaques broke open and triggered blood clots. The clots went to their hearts, blocking blood flow, which killed Russert, but only weakened Eisenhower. But in 1957, one of those clots went to President Eisenhower’s brain and caused a nonlethal stroke.
In the late 1950s, researcher Ancel Keys began looking at the link between high cholesterol and heart disease around the world. Cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra tells of Key’s study: “He showed in 7 countries, high cholesterol predisposed people to heart disease but – and I have to say a big but – when you extend it to 22 countries, the cholesterol hypothesis fell apart.” Sinatra says even though there was much research contrary to Keys’ proposition, it still led to the widely accepted idea that high cholesterol causes heart disease. It’s no wonder that, 20 years ago when the cholesterol-lowering statins first appeared on the market, they were hailed as a breakthrough in heart attack prevention.
Cardiologist and New York Times best-selling author, Dr. Arthur Agatston, likes the statins and prescribes them to his patients because they’ve been shown to lower heart attack risk. Agatston explains, “Statins are wonderful medications. They’re much safer than much of the popular press indicates. They decrease heart attacks by about 30%.”
When statins first came on the market, Dr. Sinatra also thought they were great – until some of his patients with low cholesterol began having heart attacks. Sinatra remembers, “I did lots of, thousands of, cardiac catheterisations; took care of thousands of heart attacks but – wait a minute – I’m seeing people come in with heart attacks with cholesterol levels of 150. It didn’t make sense.”
Today, Sinatra believes that the theory making high cholesterol responsible for heart disease is wrong. He says cholesterol doesn’t predict who will have a heart attack; and the reason statin drugs reduce heart attacks is not because they lower cholesterol — but because they reduce inflammation in the body. Sinatra explains, “Inflammation is the root cause of heart disease — unfortunately this cholesterol story, you know, is stealing the stage as the number one factor in heart disease but I believe nothing is farther from the truth.”
Yet Sinatra does prescribe statins for their anti-inflammatory benefit. But that’s only small doses in just a few patients, mostly those with serious heart conditions. Sinatra limits the use of statins because of concerns about their safety: terrible muscle pains and weakess caused by the breakdown of muscle cells (rhabdomyolysis), memory loss, and kidney damage have been reported. In addition, harm to the immune system may leave the young and the old susceptible to dangerous infections. And statins may also increase the risk of several cancers. Why the side effects? One possibility is that statins inhibit the liver from producing coenzyme Q10, a substance that powers the body’s cells.
Sinatra says if you’re taking Zocor, Crestor, Pravachol, or any of the statins, you should definitely take a coenzyme Q10 supplement to overcome the deficit. Sinatra recommends that his patients start supplementing with CoQ10 and then add antioxidants like vitamin E, which also fight the damaging results of inflammation. L-carnitine and D-Ribose are other supplements that strengthen the body against inflammation and may also help offset drug side effects. Sinatra has written a book, The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology (Basic Health Publications, Inc. 2005), explaining how those energizing substances work.
Both Sinatra and Agatston recommend that people take fish oil, which can help prevent what happened to Tim Russert. The omega-3 fats in fish oil reduce inflammation and can keep those plaques from breaking open. The cardiologists also agree that diet is central to fighting inflammation and heart disease. Agatston shares a nutritional dilemma facing America today: “While we’re overfed, we’re literally undernourished. We’re not getting the nutrients from the variety of fruits and vegetables and whole grains (that) we should be, and statins are not a substitute for a healthy lifestyle.” That’s why he has emphasized proper eating in his latest book, The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life by Arthur Agatston, M.D. with Joseph Signorile, Ph.D.
Sinatra says there are many inflammation-fighting foods in the aisles of your grocery store: “Ginger does the same thing aspirin does, it thins the blood. It’s also a potent anti-inflammatory.” But there’s one thing to avoid for heart health: sugar. Sinatra explains, “Sugar is the worst thing for causing heart disease, it’s not cholesterol, it’s sugar – sugar. I’m anti-sugar whether it’s high fructose corn syrup or regular sugar or synthetic sugars.” Sinatra believes going the natural route can actually reverse heart disease and he shares those ideas in his book Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It’s To Late. CBN News Senior Reporter Gailon Totheroh sums it up this way: “A heart- healthy diet could reduce the need for powerful – and potentially dangerous – statin drugs.” By focusing on finding ways to protect and restore the heart and blood vessels, the goal of good health can one day be achieved by untold numbers of people now battling heart disease.