Do Statins Make It Tough to Exercise?
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/do-statins-make-it-tough-to-exercise/
A number of years ago after a Doctor’s visit my doctor prescribed statins for me (I think the actual prescription was for Lipotor, not that it matters). While I am not a health care professional, not only am I married to one but I have a degree in biochemistry, so I have the background and exposure to understand what is going on. I did a lot of reading on statins and was very upset to realize that they were _only_ to be prescribed once diet and exercise had failed to address the higher cholesterol concerns. That doctor was close to retirement (I don’t recall ever seeing him after that, he sold his practice to a pair of much younger doctors) and probably was used to old fat white men ignoring advice on diet and exercise so decided to save some time. In any case, I developed a pretty detailed understanding of the biochemistry of statins and how they presume to work (in case you can’t guess based on my attitude, I never took any of the statins, never even filled the prescription).
Most people who have moderately high levels of cholesterol (I was a member of that group at that time) can be easily treated by eating a diet higher in vegetables (hence fiber) and getting off their fat lazy asses and moving around. Almost immediately after such a ‘prescription’ the patient’s cholesterol levels return to optimal and as long as they continue with that program (which has been well documented to lead to a vastly longer and healthier life for many many reasons) they never return to the higher levels. Note, btw, that the higher levels of cholesterol (and LDL and HDL, etc.) are _correlated_ with heart disease and there is (to my knowledge, that, while not encyclopedic, is quite extensive) _causative_ evidence. What this means is that it is quite possible that the higher cholesterol, etc. levels are a _byproduct_ of some other underlying condition, behavior, etc. that leads to heart disease, not the cause. I was quite surprised when I read this; based on the endless blather by the pharmaceutical companies you would have to believe that such conclusions were well accepted science with massive amounts of incontrovertible evidence instead of what amounts to opinions of medical professionals absent of any reliable clinical trial. Then again, when I had heard all the brouhaha regarding cholesterol and eggs after having recently learned in my biochemistry classes that virtually no dietary cholesterol made it into the blood stream, I should have been suspicious.
Cholesterol, btw, is an _absolute_ requirement for living. If you were somehow able to eliminate cholesterol from your blood stream you would likely die within days, and probably very unhappily. Cholesterol is require to build hormones, it is often part of structural membrane proteins and acts as a base molecule for dozens, if not hundreds, of critically important molecules in your cell’s biochemistry. It is no wonder that the reported article shows detrimental effects in athletic people on statins, cholesterol is necessary for rebuilding cell membranes and mitochondria (the bits of the cell that actually provide most of the cell’s (hence organism’s) energy) are mostly made of membrane. The bit about memory loss? Guess what: nerve cells have a thick lipid membrane surrounding them that is full of cholesterol.
Based on my research, unless you have a family history of serious heart disease AND have elevated cholesterol levels that _fail to respond_ to diet and exercise changes, THEN and ONLY then would you have a likelihood of a better health outcome by taking statins. Not exactly the impression you get when all those glowing commercials are on TV, eh? I listen closely to those commercials and they are meeting their fiduciary duty by (very quietly) mentioning all the relevant elements, but for people not as attentive and further with their doctor pushing the meds, they would hop right on the bandwagon without a second thought.
I consider it practically criminal that the pharmaceutical companies are now trying to push this crap on children. In addition to the side effects mentioned in the article that would reinforce the lack of activity in the target demographic (fat kids), these children’s brains are still growing and more than likely heavy statin use would lead to lifetime negative impacts. Of course, since the FDA is owned outright by the pharmaceutical companies nothing much is likely to change in a good way. However, my dear reader(s) have at least been exposed to some science and have the opportunity to avoid being sheeple in this regard.
