The Statin Scam

For decades, the American Heart Association and other "heart health experts" have shouted from the rooftop that the best way to protect yourself from a heart attack was by taking one of Big Pharma's cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Just a few years ago, the AHA together with the American College of Cardiology rewrote their cholesterol guidelines and recommended that almost every older American take the drug. The new recommendations more than doubled the number of patients eligible for statins.

If you're a man 60 or older, the likelihood you'll be placed on a statin is a staggering 87%! That's a 600% increase in three decades.

It's a huge scam.

In fact, the theory that cholesterol causes heart disease is one of the biggest myths sold to the public.

Afterall, Big Pharma built a trillion-dollar industry on this fake science. Big Agra has also made billions from their processed "heart-healthy, low-cholesterol" fake foods.

They're not going to allow their cronies at the FDA or anywhere else to come clean now. There's too much money at stake.

I've been advising both my patients and my readers that statins do nothing to help seniors avoid heart attacks, strokes, or an early death. In fact, in my book The Doctor's Heart Cure, I dedicated an entire chapter to the misinformation surrounding cholesterol and statin drugs. And that was back in 2004.

You know how strongly I feel about the myth that cholesterol causes heart disease and that Big Pharma's drugs are the only way to rid your body of this "dangerous" cholesterol.

It's a Big Lie that has taken us in the wrong direction as we watch heart disease continue to skyrocket in this country — and the world.

You see, your cholesterol levels are supposed to be high — in spite of what Big Pharma, Big Agra, and mainstream medicine have to say about it.

In fact, the more cholesterol you have, the better your life will be. It is the mother of your most important hormones — the ones that keep you smart, sexy, happy, strong, and mobile.

Yet, modern medicine has declared war on cholesterol. And it's a very bad idea to declare war on a natural part of your own body.

The way modern medicine treats cholesterol is the same as saying, "You have Alzheimer's disease, let's cut off your head." It's like if you come to me to have your bone mineral density measured, and I say, "We've found a problem with your bones. We have to take them out."

I have a better idea...

Cholesterol is a molecule that's made in your liver and consumed through the foods you eat.

It's one of your body's most vital substances. It enables your liver to synthesize acids, hormones and vitamins that are utterly essential to a happy and healthy life.

Cholesterol is the part of your body that gives life its gusto:

Cholesterol also protects every nerve in your body, so you can move quickly and react fast. It's essential for remaining vibrant and independent throughout your life.

Contrary to what you may have heard, there's no such thing as "good" or "bad" cholesterol. Cardiologists like to throw these terms around, but it's extremely misleading.

For starters, HDL and LDL aren't actually cholesterol. Cholesterol is cholesterol. Let me explain...

Because cholesterol isn't water-soluble, it has to travel through your bloodstream in little packages called lipoproteins — low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL). There are three other lipoproteins, by the way... chylomicrons, VLDL and IDL.

LDL is present in plaque build-up in your arteries. That's why it's called "bad" cholesterol. Cardiologists like to measure your "bad" cholesterol to assess your risk of developing heart disease.

But they couldn't be more off target.

Just look at the famous Framingham Heart Study, which has been ongoing since the 1940s. It's the largest heart study ever conducted in the history of the human species. And it couldn't link cholesterol with heart attack risk even when it tried.

And according to the worldwide "Jupiter" trial, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have absolutely no impact at all on heart disease risk.

In fact, studies show that 75% of people who have heart attacks have "normal" cholesterol levels.

Many studies confirm what I tell my patients — low cholesterol is worse for you than high cholesterol.

By consuming "low-cholesterol" foods and taking cholesterol-busting meds, you're inhibiting your liver from producing one of your body's vital substances.

Even worse, you are destroying a part of your body that's there to protect you from heart disease.

Have you noticed that the more expensive brands of pet foods are grain free? Because people finally realized that dogs are carnivores and they aren't designed to eat corn-based dog chow.

Hopefully everyone will someday realize that the same is true for humans.

I believe that when dogs — and humans — are returned to the natural, high fat, cholesterol-rich diets of their ancestors, heart disease will almost completely disappear.

Your HDL is actually a heart protector. The higher your HDL number, the better. It doesn't matter how high your LDL is.

The Framingham Study proved high levels of HDL cholesterol is directly related to lower risk of heart disease. In fact, it showed that increased HDL could reduce coronary disease independent of LDL cholesterol.

If your HDL is above 85, you are at no greater risk of heart disease whether your total cholesterol is 400 or 150. My HDL is 100 so I couldn't care less what my total cholesterol is. As long as my HDL stays high, I'm at a much lower risk than somebody with low cholesterol.

LDL particles do oxidize in your bloodstream and are found in the plaque buildup in your arteries — so modern medicine has jumped to the conclusion that this is the cause of heart disease. But it's not there doing damage... it's actually protecting your heart!

The truth is cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease. Inflammation does. Cholesterol is only guilty by association.

Inflammation damages your blood vessel walls. When LDL patches the wall, it's just there — at the scene of the crime — doing its job.

Besides, your body already has its own mechanism for clearing away excess buildup. That's what your HDL is for. High HDL trumps other cholesterol concerns.

But Big Pharma's statins lower both your LDL and HDL — with disastrous consequences.

Statins work by blocking the enzyme HMGCoA, which plays a major role in the production of cholesterol in your liver. The danger of statins is well documented, even by the FDA, which is one of the most pro-statin agencies in the world. Here are just some of these dangers:

Low cholesterol also puts you at risk of a breakdown of muscle cells tissue... kidney failure... hair loss... headaches... joint and muscle pain... cataracts... diarrhea... irritability... and feeling generally old.

One thing researchers can't find is a true link between high cholesterol and heart disease — because it doesn't exist.

When you lower your cholesterol levels, you're also wreaking havoc on your body's hormonal balance.

That's because cholesterol is the precursor of the major classes of steroid hormones in your body, including testosterone, estrogen, and vitamin D. That means your body needs cholesterol to create these hormones.

One of the first things I do with patients is ask them to cut out any low-fat, low-cholesterol foods from their diet. Then I ask them to stop taking statins. The next step is to get their HDL levels up. Here are a few simple ways to raise HDL quickly and easily — and you'll get other great heart benefits at the same time:

Studies prove docosahexaenoic acid or DHA is a potent defender from heart disease.

The DHA in omega-3 fatty acids has also been shown to supercharge your HDL levels. And a recent study shows that simply having enough in your body lowers the risk of having any cardiac event by 79%.

DHA also reduces inflammation and is especially important for repairing damage to your blood vessels.

The best animal sources of omega-3 DHA are organ meats from grass-fed cattle and wild-caught, cold-water fish. Good plant sources are walnuts, avocado, and pumpkin seeds.

To reduce the inflammation that causes heart disease, you need between 600 mg and 1,000 mg of DHA daily. But it's impossible to get what you need from our food today. Here's what I tell my patients:

This "carotenoid" is the pigment that gives salmon its pink color — and it can boost your HDL more effectively than anything in existence.

The FDA has weirdly classified astaxanthin as a red food dye, but it's actually the world's strongest antioxidant. But where astaxanthin really shines is with cholesterol.

Not long ago, the first-ever randomized, placebo-controlled human trial was done in Japan. It demonstrated that astaxanthin can raise HDL levels by up to 15%.

One of the best sources is salmon. But make sure it's wild caught salmon, which contains far more natural astaxanthin than farm-raised salmon. Four ounces of farm-raised Atlantic salmon contains about 0.5 to 1.1 mg of astaxanthin. Wild-caught sockeye salmon contains 4.5 mg.

You can also get astaxanthin in other pink-colored seafood like lobster, crab, and shrimp.

If you don't like fish, a supplement will do the trick. I recommend you take at least 2.5 mg of astaxanthin a day.

Niacin, also known as vitamin B3, plays an active role in more than 15 metabolic reactions. It also raises your HDL.

And niacin improves circulation by dilating the blood vessels. I have tested its effectiveness on thousands of patients in my practice. But as usual, standard medicine has forgotten just how effective a natural solution can be at improving heart health.

It has been found to increase HDL by 20% to 35%. The key to niacin is using the right amount and the right kind. I recommend sustained release niacin (sometimes referred to as extended release). Immediate release niacin is also safe, but tends to cause hot flushes.

Absorption is important, so take your niacin with dinner. I recommend 50 mg of niacin once a day.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD