Cholesterol Lie Q & A
Dear Dr. Jonny,
Following your suggestion, I just finished reading "The Great Cholesterol Lie"! What an eye-opener.
But I recently read in the mainstream media about a study called the JUPITER Study that showed the benefit of statin drugs even for people with normal cholesterol! How can this be?
Well, I can certainly see why my reader was confused. So let's try to sort it out.
In the JUPITER study, people with normal cholesterol were given statin drugs. But these people didn't just have normal cholesterol- they also had elevated levels of a blood protein called C-reactive Protein (CRP).
When this group of people took statin drugs (specifically Crestor), their risk factors did indeed improve.
The question is, "Why?"
Here's the answer- and it's not nearly as confusing as the results might seem at first.
Statin drugs are mildly anti-inflammatory. I believe- and I'm quite sure Dr. Lundell would agree with me- that any good that statin drugs do is solely because of their ability to reduce inflammation. In the JUPITER Study, statins lowered CRP, which is- guess what- a measure of systemic inflammation!
And here's what backfired for the pharmaceutical company. This study confirmed the fact that cholesterol is largely irrelevant. The patients in the JUPITER Study were at risk not because their cholesterol was high (it wasn't) but because they had high levels of inflammation.
The statin drug lowered their inflammation, and any lowering of inflammation improves risk factors for heart disease, not to mention overall health. Let's not forget those nasty side effects of painful muscle cramping and recent studies that show extreme cognitive dysfunction from statins.
Wouldn't an aspirin be better? And better yet, Omega-3?
Statins are the "Frankenstein" medication of our time. And Dr. Lundell exposes the reasons why in his excellent book.
The bottom line is that Inflammation is a very, very serious thing—it's a silent killer.
Cholesterol is not. My advice? Take Omega-3 fish oil, the most anti-inflammatory compound on the planet and one that has exactly zero side effects. With fish oil available, why in the world would someone choose a statin as their anti-inflammatory drug of choice?
The simple steps to begin healing your heart outlined in Dr. Lundell's book, "The Great Cholesterol Lie" will absolutely astonish you.
Go here now and silence that deadly killer - inflammation.
Labels: cholesterol, crestor, fish oil, heart disease, heart health, inflammation, statin
Jonny Bowden, PhD, C.N.S. is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health and is the author of several best-selling books.
I have been following the articles on "The Great Cholesterol Lie" and wondered about the following:
Four years ago, my husband had a stroke. His doctor suggested he take fish oil, red yeast rice and Co-Q10. Red yeast rice acts like a statin. Is it safe?
Dear Dr. Jonny,
I bought this book last week. Thank you so much for letting me know about it.
Dr. Lundell is very courageous to write this book. Like your reader above said -- what a eye-opener!
I am no longer confused by the cholesterol hype. All these years we've fixated on our cholesterol count as if those numbers were the holy grail in heart disease.
How profoundly sad we've been so misled by our government and medical communities. I've scheduled an appt for a CRP test. Why hasn't my doctor mentioned this test?
Rhianna
Hi Jonny!
Thanks for kicking that myth!
This might be a question for doctor Lundell.
I wonder if there would be any negative effects if I increased my cholesterol intake by eating 8-10 eggs a day or more? Some people I know do this and I question if it can cause problems other then heart disease. Would it strain some of your organs somehow causing failure of kidneys and stuff?
Thanks,
San
i saw all the above three comments at the same time so let me address them one by one:
John and Caroline: first of all congrats on finding a doctor like that! it's a good question on red rice yeast, since it basically is a natural statin. I think it's fine- i think that it's not so much that statins are this killer drug that's the issue- clearly they're not although they're wildly oversold and promoted and their side effects played down-- but rather, the idea that we all need them to lower cholesterol (the "killer")... Your docs plan sounds brilliant and i can't see as there is any problem with it. Next time I talk to Dr. Dwight I'll run that by him for his opinion as well, but i'm guessing he'll agree. We'll see.
warmly
jb
Aria: Your doctor will probably tell you it's not important or "we don't know enought", or quote one recent study showing that lowering CRP by itself may not save lives (many other studies show that lowering it is important). I think this is short-sighted. Inflammation is a killer, and while CRP isn't the only way we know we're walking around with inflammation, it's one way and lowering inflammation overall- CRP being just one indicator of it- is important, period.
Full Duplex: There was one interesting study published a long time ago about a man who ate 20 eggs a day and had zero problems. but one case does not make a study nor a fact. The possible downside of so many eggs a day is that eggs are on the top ten list of allergens, and it is possible to devlop delayed food sensitivities later in life especially to foods we consume a lot. This is theoretical but possible. Two, eggs are a source of an important but troublesome fatty acid called arachadonic acid- it's very important, but can be inflammatory. So if you were eating that number of eggs, my concern would be that you balance it with plenty of omega-3's.
Other than that, it's guesswork. I dont' know of any study in the world that tested the result of eating 8 eggs a day for however long- my gut tells me it's not a big deal at all, but my gut is not infallable nor does it make a study. However it's almost guaranteed that you'll never see a study like that anyway, so all we have is educated guesses. Mine is that it's fine.
warmly
jb
Do you know what I love the most bout the JUPITER study? That the acronym stands for Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial evaluating Rosuvastatin. Now tell me please ... if you are going to publish a study that has as its goal, the justification for the use of a drug, you'd better darn well set up that study in the drug's favor, no? Be sure to review Dr. Eades' review of the study, whom I credit with the factoid about the study's name: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cardiovascular-disease/1853/
hi jonny,
just focusing on c-reactive protein is also misleading after all.it has to be incorporated with these parameters in order to make sense which are fibrinogen,homocysteine,lipoprotein(a) and hemoglobin AIC.And also it is important to point out that CRP does not say anything about arterial inflammation.all it tells about general inflammation that occurs any where in human body.there exists a different measurement of arterial inflammation.thanks
Kaya
Thanks for the answer, Jonny.
Please understand that I am not trying to be some 'smart guy', but is Fish oil really as anti-inflammatory as people think?
I have read a review studie that was inconclusive about the anti-inflammatory effect of fish oil. And some studies say that krill oil DOES decrease inflammation.
I would rather buy fish oil, because it is a lot cheaper, but if it doesn't work half as well as Krill oil then it is still a waste of money.
Which one should I buy?
references:
Deutsch L. Evaluation of the effect of Neptune Krill
Oil on chronic inflammation and arthritic symptoms.
J Am Coll Nutr 2007;26:39-48.
Balk EM, Lichtenstein AH, Chung M, et al.
Effects of omega-3 fatty acids on serum markers
of cardiovascular disease risk: a systematic review.
Atherosclerosis 2006;189:19-30.
I couldn't have said it better; all these things matter greatly, as do lifestyle habits like exercise and weight management; only point here is to get our myopic vision off of cholesterol and start talking about the real risk factors that matter, starting with inflammation. (And including all that you mention!)
warmly
jb
Full duplex-- i didn't think you were trying to be smart guy at all! it's a legit question but i think you might be putting too much worry into a minor issue. Both are good. Maybe krill is mildly better- i don't know since i've never seen head to head comparisons, plus it would depend on the source of the fish/krill to some extent- but this is a little like "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" ... really omega-3 (DHA and EPA, and to some extent ALA) are highly anti-inflammatory. If you're worried about absorption, take a bit more fish oil; but it's worked in every population ever studied, and i just wouldn't worry that much about minor differences between these two excellent sources.
warmly
jb
The first step to getting your cholesterol under control is to have it tested. Once you know what your numbers are and mean, you can measure the success or failure of any cholesterol management program you follow.
true- but that doesn't address the question of whether cholesterol numbers actually matter as much as we've been led to believe
jb
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