Beat Heart Disease By reducing Sugar Intake, NOT taking Statins. Robert G. Carlson, MD, FACS

So all the threats by physicians to patients telling them that they need to take a statin or they will have a heart attack or stroke is just a heinous lie.

The bottom line is millions of people are taking a drug they don’t need, statins, for primary prevention. They are living with severe joint pain, memory loss and loss of energy for no reason at a cost to each of $1,000 per year (one study treated 120 patients for two years at a cost of $287,000).

Then there’s the issue of your insurance premiums increasing because your cholesterol is over 200 and now you’re supposedly at risk for heart disease.

Another study, a meta-analysis review of scientific literature was conducted by Dr. Taylor and The Cochrane Collaboration, a prestigious and respected review in the UK. The researchers found no benefit to the use of statins in primary prevention. This incredible, skillful review supports my experience in reading statin literature bought and paid for by drug companies.

That is, they are purposefully adding sick patients with heart disease to the healthy primary prevention group to “massage” and carefully remove data that supports a much higher incidence of dangerous side-effects, and more.

I applaud Dr Taylor and the Cochrane Collaboration for stepping forward and proving that statins are not helpful for people who have only high cholesterol and are in fact dangerous.

Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D writing about The Cochrane Study in the Huffington Post stated, “Cholesterol lowering statin medications like Crestor, Simvastatin,Vytorin and Lipitor have been the number one prescribed class of drugs in the U.S. for years, breaking over 36 billion dollars in sales last year… all just by making healthy people patients.”

Dr. Teitelbaum, who I respect immensely, is a pioneer in inflammation and sugar causing heart disease. He summarizes this recent report by saying, “I believe that this epitomizes a lot of modern medicine: using a meaningless test to prescribe a ineffective drug!”

Another study, a 2010 literature-based meta-analysis report from The American Medical Association found no evidence of any benefit to statin therapy (Lipitor, Crestor, Simvastatin, etc) on all-cause mortality in high-risk primary prevention much less in patients whose only sign is an elevated cholesterol over 200.

If you have parents over the age of 70, get them off statins before they suffer needlessly. If a doctor suggests Lipitor or Crestor for cholesterol of 240 and threatens you with a heart attack or stroke, just say no. It’s just not true. Neither the data nor any results, even those manufactured by the drug companies, support that risk. None!

Diets rich in carbohydrates and sugar ignite inflammation that in turn causes heart disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity. The far better choice to taking useless dangerous statins is to reduce your carbohydrate intake and take Omega -3 fish oils. You can check your CRP test to determine inflammation levels and focus on steps to bring that under control, or you can focus on reducing triglycerides and VLDL’s by removing excessive carbohydrates and sweets from your diet. Think of sugar like its pouring gasoline on the flames of inflammation. Reducing inflammation by significantly cutting your sugar intake can be relatively quick and the nice side-effect is weight loss. Take control of your life. Push away those sugar and high fructose corn syrup products and if you are struggling in the fight to reduce sugar because of cravings, invite Stop-it and the 14 day stop sugar cravings weight loss plan into your house. Visit us at www.stopsugarcravingseasily.com.

The real truth about Statins (cholesterol lowering medications) Robert G Carlson, MD, FACS

In my practice, I evaluate a large number of patients and assist with managing cholesterol levels. Even though I was a heart surgeon for many years, I don’t prescribe statins as I believe heart disease, cancer and diabetes are caused by inflammation – not cholesterol.

Two Cases In Point

The first patient in her late 50’s received a demand from her primary care physician to take Crestor for her elevated cholesterol less she suffer a heart attack or stroke without Crestor.

Another patient asked about her 86 year old mother who is taking statins because her doctor demanded it. Her mother can barely walk because her joints and muscles hurt terribly.

She is seeing a Rheumatologist, Neurologist, Orthopedic surgeon and a Pain Management specialist to manage this pain. What she needs to do is stop Lipitor that is causing the pain and stealing her memory. Once again, her doctor warned her if she stops it, she will have a heart attack or more frightening to her: a stroke. This is cruel and an out-right lie. In fact, the higher her cholesterol is, the longer she will live….

Dr Abramson, Harvard Professor wrote in the Lancet that there is no indication for any women to take a statin. None. In a French study, women between 60 and 75 had a 5 times higher mortality in five years when their cholesterol level was 160 or below, versus a women with a cholesterol level of 260.

In other words, the higher your cholesterol, the longer you survive! This study was recently confirmed in a 2010 Scandinavian Journal article.

A Major Tragedy

This is a major tragedy. Lipitor is killing this woman and thousands like her needlessly. No woman or man older than 70 should be taking a statin agent for primary prevention. That means because of high cholesterol and not for coronary artery disease management after a heart attack.

Sadly, most people taking statins have never been diagnosed with heart disease. The reason for subscribing was elevated levels of cholesterol. This is called primary prevention. Amazingly, a new scientific review of 14 studies shows that statins are virtually useless for primary prevention.

So all the threats by physicians to patients telling them that they need to take a statin or they will have a heart attack or stroke is just a heinous lie.

The bottom line is millions of people are taking a drug they don’t need, statins, for primary prevention. They are living with severe joint pain, memory loss and loss of energy for no reason at a cost to each of $1,000 per year (one study treated 120 patients for two years at a cost of $287,000).

Then there’s the issue of your insurance premiums increasing because your cholesterol is over 200 and now you’re supposedly at risk for heart disease.