I'm not a pharma basher. Drugs can save lives! But the overuse of statins needs serious examination, especially in light of a recent Jama study.
Cholesterol is a tricky subject and one I’ve been watching over the years. My dad was a cardiac patient back in the 1980s when the word “cholesterol” developed its negative connotations. No need to relive the fat-free dogma days, with messages still permeating our dietary habits today, but cholesterol has pretty much been the bad guy most of my life. And statin drugs, the idolized rescuer in this Game of Thrones in medicine.
Last week, the US Preventive Services Task Force published a Recommendation Statement in Jama “updating their 2008 study regarding statin use.” The update repeated the benefit of using low-dose statins in adults aged 40 to 75 years who have 1 or more cardiovascular risk factors, which include dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension or smoking.
First Red flag. If I’m a smoker – just that one lifestyle factor in the equation of my life – my doctor is justified in recommending a low-dose statin as a preventive measure for CVD (cardiovascular disease)? OK. That oversimplified protocol is bad enough.
But a deeper concern I have for research like this, blasted all across our media channels, raising the status of statin drug use to the “good guy” in this medical drama, is that no one reads the finer print. WHO benefits? WHO were the subjects in this study? People leave with this bottom-line impression: Use Low-Dose Statin Therapy For Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.
That’s the simple message littering our media right now.
Never says…If you are a white man.
A person has to read to near the bottom to see it.
“The majority of participants were men and white.”
So the study should actually read, “Low-Dose Statin Therapy Might Help Prevent CVD Risk in White Men.” The word "might" also should flashing in neon because correlation is not causation, and diet and exercise had not factored into this equation at all. Could a low-dose statin hold that much power on its own?
Most importantly, the irony doesn’t escape me that if I have diabetes, the doctor should also recommend a low-dose statin as a preventive measure even though multiple research studies have shown that statin drugs increase diabetes in a measurable way.
Even more devastating, in a UK study (of course), statin medication use in postmenopausal women is associated with an increased risk of diabetes.
So the news is pushing an agenda for using statin drugs to prevent cardiovascular disease in white men when significant research shows statin drugs actually increases diabetes in postmenopausal women. Nice.
Ladies – we need to start paying closer attention to the “medical recommendations,” especially in midlife when our hormones haven’t acted this crazy since middle school.
Check out this picture of the steriodogenic pathway, how all of our hormones are made.
What is the source of all of these beautiful hormones in the body?
Cholesterol.
Before you let the doctor disempower your HMG Coenzyme Reductase (the enzyme completely disabled with statin drugs), know your research and get a second medical opinion.
For men and women alike:
“At the end of the day, protocol-driven treatment like this fails. Each person's biochemical individuality exerts a major influence on his or her health. The level of nutrient intake that maintains the best possible health is highly variable from person to person. Lifestyle choices and environmental exposures filtered through genetic predisposition are fundamental factors in the expression of disease and a successful treatment approach must include investigation into these factors.”
Know Your Body.
Own Your Health.
