The Dangers of cholesterol lowering Statin drugs

The approach of conventional medicine to symptoms and ill health is most often: Name, Blame, Tame ie name the disease condition, shame it for causing our symptoms or feelings of ill-health, and then simply tame it using pharmaceutical drugs. There is seldom if ever, any consideration or investigation into WHY the patient may be presenting with the symptoms or more accurately, their health imbalance.

Enter Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine is a systems biology-based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be one of many contributing to a person’s overall poor health trajectory or illness eg. one person may have multiple diagnoses including Hypertension, Hypothyroidism, hyper-lipidemia etc.

Functional Medicine practitioners and coaches address the causal or upstream factors contributing to the signs, symptoms, illnesses and diseases that a person may have. Functional Medicine practitioners are able to apply new research in a way that has often brought dramatic results to patients who had previously received unsuccessful treatment within the realm of conventional medicine. Functional Medicine practitioners identify unifying factors at the cellular and systems level that underlie organism-wide problems.

A diagnosis can result from more than one cause. For example, depression can be caused by many different factors including inflammation, and in turn, inflammation may lead to a number of different diagnoses, including depression.

The precise manifestation of each cause depends on the person’s genes, environment, and lifestyle and only treatments or interventions that address the right cause will have lasting health benefits beyond the symptom. A note on genetic pre-disposition: genes may load the gun, but lifestyle factors pull the trigger. Epi-genetics is the field of study looking at the impact of environment on our genes. Nutri-genomics is the study of the impact of food on our genes – food is cellular information. We all have genes that may pre-dispose us to certain diseases but its only when these genes are exposed to negative or harmful environmental factors that they actually manifest in a disease process. These negative environmental factors may include toxin exposure (food, chemicals etc), poor sleep, stress and high cortisol, poor micro-nutrient sufficiency etc.

Here’s a Functional Medicine perspective on the all too frequent (standard?) prescription of statins to manage high cholesterol:

LDL or Low Density Lipo-proteins are widely recognised as ‘bad cholesterol’ that cause the formation or deposit of arterial plaques that predispose to both cardiovascular disease as well as stroke. HDL’s (High Density Lipo-proteins) play an important role in diminishing these dangerous plaques by carrying them to the liver to be processed and removed. High LDL or cholesterol may occur as part of CardioMetabolic syndrome which is diagnosed if any three of the following criteria are present:

Abdominal obesity (increased waist circumference)

High cholesterol (LDL and triglycerides) and low HDL

Elevated blood pressure

Insulin resistance (increased blood sugar)

Inflammatory state (High CRP)

Conventional Medicine typically sees high LDL’s and immediately prescribes a statin – cholesterol lowering medication. But here’s the issue: the body doesn’t work like that. You cant just shut off one process without having most often times catastrophic effects elsewhere. Cholesterol is essential in the body – for brain health, cellular membrane/cell wall health, as a pre-cursor to the formation of hormones and Vitamin D as well as the production of Co-enzyme Q 10. Statins block the pathway way too high up, with the resultant effect of lowering ALL cholesterol, both good and bad, with often dire long term health consequences (see diagram).

While conventional medicine will prescribe a pharmaceutical drug to ‘fix the problem’ ie the high LDL’s, Functional Medicine practitioners will look at WHY the LDL’s are high to begin with and address relevant lifestyle factors in order to reduce LDL’s without pharmaceutical intervention that has harmful effects long term.

Proven end consequences of sustained use of pharmaceutical statins to lower cholesterol: higher risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic dysfunction, cognitive impairment, hypo-thyroidism as well as the associated health risks of reduced levels of vitamin D. Muscle spasm and cramping, a common side effect of statins, is often caused by the reduced production of Co-enzyme Q10. The dangers of statin drugs are real.

It has also been proven in research studies that reduction of LDL without the simultaneous reduction of CRP (C-Reactive protein) inflammatory markers has no overall impact on the increased risk of cardio-metabolic disease and its resultant predisposition to heart attack and stroke.

But all the blame and responsibility cannot be laid at the feet of medical practitioners for their over-prescription of statins! After all, it is well known that the average person would rather take a ‘quick fix’ pill for their high cholesterol than apply the discipline, focus and commitment necessary to implement and achieve the lifestyle change necessary for reducing high cholesterol and its inherent risks, and restoring their body to a state of overall health and balance.

The dangers of statin drugs can be avoided by simply not taking them. Lifestyle changes will help improve your cholesterol in a sustained way. These may include:

Diet high in phyto-nutrients, healthy fats and fibre

Diet low in processed fat and simple/refined carbs (low Glycaemic Load)

Improved gut health

Reduced toxin exposure and detoxification

Exercise and movement

Quality sleep

Prioritizing positivity (enhance parasympathetic nervous system function)

Supplements including: chromium, lipoic acid, magnesium, Co Q10

Lifestyle change significantly decreases all major risk factors predisposing to illness and disease

Blog post written by Chantal Du Chenne, Gut Health advocate and Functional Medicine Health and Lifestyle Coach

BIO: Chantal is a B.Sc.Hons Allied Health with an international diploma in Nutrition and Sports Nutrition. Chantal is a passionate Gut Health advocate & Functional Medicine Health & Lifestyle Coach, specialising in the improvement and management of the chronic diseases of lifestyle, the illnesses and diseases associated with dietary excess and their relationship to leaky gut and dysbiosis (imbalance) of the gut microbiome. These conditions include IBS, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, overweight, obesity, acne, eczema, depression, anxiety, auto-immune, hormone imbalance, cancer, cognitive decline etc.

Over her 25 year career, Chantal has held various positions within the health and wellness industry – including 10 years as the Executive Head of Vodacom’s corporate wellness & mobile health programs. Chantal is the owner/ founder of the DripBar which offers vitamin and mineral drip therapy in improving micronutrient deficiencies. She is also the founder/owner of a Kombucha brewery which produces the brand of organic green tea ‘booch’ called theFarmacy.

Chantal is a competitive cyclist, a plant strong vegan and mom to two grown up girls.

To book a health coaching session: info@thedripbar.co.za or chantal@healthtrac.global

This blog post contains information that is not designed to take the place of,
substitute, or replace any form and method of professional or medical advice
and treatment or medicine. All content is the author’s opinion and is not
intended to diagnose and remedy. The facts and figures contained in this
document are presented solely for informational and educational purposes
only.