“Everybody I know in my age group is on statins.”
For a minute I felt like I was having statin drug-induced pain just hearing that.
My friend T.M. is approaching 50 years old, and he’s a very successful guy. He’s CEO of a publicly traded company, and another one he invested in just went public.
Most of his friends and colleagues are very smart and successful businessmen with private jets and all of that. And T.M.’s been reading and sharing with them my advisories on how bad these statin drugs are for you for ten years.
I was having lunch with him to catch up now that I’m back from Africa, and here he was telling me, “All my friends take statins. Every one of them.”
This is why I keep talking about the dangers of statin drugs. I’ve talked about it many times to many different groups of people all around the world, but I can’t stop.
Especially since it seems like every week they discover a new danger from statin drugs.
First it was nerve pain, melting muscles, and heart failure. Then people on statins started to develop symptoms of neurological diseases like ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).1 People on statins are also at risk for Parkinson’s, since the disease is associated with very low cholesterol levels.2
We already knew that statins cause memory loss. Hundreds of cases of statin-induced memory loss have been reported to MedWatch, the FDA’s system for filing adverse drug events.
They’ve tried to pass off statins as a treatment for Alzheimer’s. But a recent pilot study found that taking statins worsens brain function for Alzheimer’s patients, too.3
And just a little while ago drugmakers had to amend the “label” on the drugs so they warn you in black and white that liver damage, memory loss and confusion, and diabetes are side effects of statins.
And did you know that statin drugs may promote cancer? Having too little cholesterol increases your risk for cancer. In one study, researchers found one extra case of cancer per 1,000 people who had the lowest levels of LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, compared to patients with higher LDL levels.4
The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association did an investigation and found that the original studies on statins found them to be cancer-causing in animal tests. The authors wrote that cholesterols lowering drug treatment, especially with statins, “should be avoided.”
Yet the statin drug industry is still booming. People are still getting sick, and doctors and the pharmaceutical companies are still putting people at risk for the worst kinds of pain and disease.
The simple truth is you don’t need statin drugs because cholesterol does not cause heart disease. Cholesterol is a good thing. I want you to have cholesterol. You need it. Life without cholesterol is miserable. You will be weak, slow, frail, and impotent.
Another prestigious medical journal The Lancet, did a study that looked at 724 people and followed them for 10 years. Those with higher cholesterol had a lower chance of dying from any adverse cause. 6
If you want to live a long, healthy life, stay away from Statin drugs. Just stop taking them.
Instead of lowering cholesterol, I want you to increase it. Remember the Framingham Heart Study? It’s one of the most famous and well-respected studies ever done. It shows that all you have to do is raise your HDL high enough and you’ll have almost no chance of heart disease.
How can you raise your HDL reliably and quickly?
One of the first things I pescribe to my patients who need to raise their HDL is my P.A.C.E. program. All it takes is 12 minutes a day, three times a week and you can raise your HDL dramatically.
Working out with a focus on capacity – not endurance – by using short periods of progressively intense exertion like I show you exactly how to do in my PACE Express DVD program will strengthen your heart and reliably boost HDL.
Dozens of studies have shown dramatic and significant increases in HDL for people doing “dynamic” workouts that mimic some of the features of P.A.C.E.
One study I found that looked at Navy personnel going through P.A.C.E.-like training showed that after only 5 days of workouts, their HDL had increased 31%.8
And if the study had been done using P.A.C.E., the results would have been even more dramatic.
In another study, athletes who trained for capacity like you would with P.A.C.E. had 20% higher HDL than those who trained for endurance.9
The best part is you don’t have to do much to start. You can walk for 45 seconds at a time, like my patient Terri L. She was able to raise her HDL 25% just by starting with that. And you can do anything you enjoy that gives your heart and lungs a challenge. Swimming, biking, stair-stepping, sprinting and elliptical machines are all good for raising HDL.
1. Beltowski J. "Statins and ALS: the possible role of impaired LXR signaling." Med Sci Monit. 2010 Mar;16(3):RA73-78.
2. Du G, Lewis M, Shaffer M, Chen H, Yang Q, Mailman R, Huang X. "Serum cholesterol and nigrostriatal R2* values in Parkinson’s disease." PLoS One. 2012;7(4):e35397.
3. Padala K, Padala P, McNeilly D, Geske J, Sullivan D, Potter J. "The effect of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors on cognition in patients with Alzheimer’s dementia: a prospective withdrawal and rechallenge pilot study." Am J Geriatr Pharmacother. 2012 Oct;10(5):296-302.
4. Alsheikh-Ali A, Maddukuri P, Han H, Karas R. "Effect of the Magnitude of Lipid Lowering on Risk of Elevated Liver Enzymes, Rhabdomyolysis, and Cancer; Insights From Large Randomized Statin Trials." J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;50(5):409-418.
5. Newman T, Hulley S. "Carcinogenicity of lipid-lowering drugs." JAMA. 1996 Jan 3;275(1):55-60.
6. Weverling-Rijnsburger AW, Blauw GJ, Lagaay AM, Knook DL, Meinders AE, Westendorp RG. “Total cholesterol and risk of mortality in the oldest old.” Lancet. 1997 Oct 18;350(9085):1119-23.
7. Castelli, W.P., “Cholesterol and lipids in the risk of coronary artery disease– the Framingham Heart Study,” Canadian Journal of Cardiology July 1998;A:5A-10A
8. Smoak, B.L., Norton, J.P., Ferguson, E.W., et al, “Changes in lipoprotein profiles during intense military training,” J. Am. Coll. Nutr. Dec. 1990;9(6):567-72
9. Chen K, Yang R. "Effects of exercise on lipid metabolism and musculoskeletal fitness in female athletes." World J Gastroenterol. 2004 Jan;10(1):122-6.