Too Profitable to CureBrent Hoadley, Ph.D.
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| Consider this example of targeting: besides the use of cholesterol-lowering pharmaceutical products, the food industry jumped into the fray of the high-cholesterol brouhaha with their contention that eating oatmeal lowered cholesterol. The rush to the marketplace with a plethora of oat-containing products could only be drowned out by the cha-ching of cash registers totaling up the sales of oat-containing products. Checking the oat content of many cereals, breads, and breakfast bars that heralded their cholesterol-lowering properties shows how little regard the industry has for our intelligence. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 Dean Ornish's landmark study, called the Lifestyle Heart Trial, published in 1990, found that lifestyle changes (a low-fat vegetarian diet, moderate aerobic exercise, stress management, smoking cessation, and group support)35 changed serum lipids as much as cholesterol-lowering drugs. After one year in the program, patients also showed significant overall regression of their coronary atherosclerosis. These results have been replicated in several recent studies. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 Method of administration influences the serum cholesterol-lowering effect of Psyllium. In: Am J Clin Nutr; 59(5): 1055-9, May 1994.
Ziai SA, Larijana B, Akhoondzadeh S, et al. Psyllium decreased serum glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin significantly in diabetic outpatients. J Ethnopharmacol; 102(2): 202-207. 2005.
Zumarraga L, Levitt MD, Suarez F. Absence of gaseous symptoms during ingestion of commercial fibre preparations. In: Aliment Pharmacol Ther; 11(6): 1067-72, Dec 1997.
Psyllium Seed
Plantago afra description
Medicinal Parts: The medicinal parts are the ripe seeds. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 Vitamin B3, or niacin (Niaspan), yet another cholesterol-lowering option, is found in a number of plants. A deficiency of this vitamin causes pellagra, which is associated with diarrhea, skin inflammation, and dementia. Niacin does lower cholesterol. However, it is associated with a number of side effects, including flushing (a sudden rushing of blood to the face accompanied by a feeling of heat in the face that can be very uncomfortable), which limit its use. |
| But just because they have a greater risk of heart attacks doesn't mean they will get extra benefit from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Much has been made of a few studies that have shown a reduction of heart attacks in diabetics without heart disease who have been treated with statins.7,8 However, more studies have shown no benefit for diabetics without heart disease,9"11 and some studies in heart-disease patients show that diabetics get less benefit from statins than do nondiabetics. |
| The Bottom Line
I argue that if you are healthy; exercise; are not overweight; don't smoke; don't have a family history of heart disease, familial hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, or diabetes but have high cholesterol, you should not take a statin or any cholesterol-lowering drug. It's better to change your lifestyle.
Decrease the amount of animal fat you consume. Don't eat processed and junk food that has artificial ingredients like partially hydrogenated oils ("trans" fat). Trans fat is artificially produced oil that is widely used in restaurants and in the production of processed foods. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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| The Step 1 and Step 2 cholesterol-lowering Diets. The Step 1 and Step 2 diets were created by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Association's National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and have been endorsed by the American Heart Association (AHA). These diets were designed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by focusing on reducing elevated cholesterol levels.
The Step 1 diet advises to reduce total fat intake to less than 30 percent of daily calories, with 8 to 10 percent of calories coming from saturated fats. |
| Red yeast rice has been used as a dietary staple, to make rice wine, and as a food preservative and is a cholesterol-lowering agent. The main active ingredient in red yeast rice is mona-colin K (lovastatin),338 which inhibits the enzyme that initiates the synthesis of cholesterol. Omega-3 fatty acids, isoflavones, and plant sterols in red yeast rice are likely also responsible for its beneficial effects on lipids. In one of the early studies on red yeast rice (using 2. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 NUTRIENTS TO LOWER CHOLESTEROL
By now, I hope you understand why the cholesterol-lowering issue is less important than addressing the underlying inflammation. Rather than targeting the symptom, we should address the underlying problem, in this case, inflammation. Don't shoot the messenger! If we treat the inflammation adequately, the cholesterol levels should normalize. If the HDL, the "good" cholesterol, is high, there's no problem. If LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, is high, antioxidants are key for preventing it from oxidizing or rusting and causing cell damage. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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| One study of a very low saturated fat diet plus a cholesterol-lowering drug, compared to a diet high in plant sterols, including soy foods and high-fiber whole grains, concluded that dietary intervention may be as effecrive as rhe medication.96 Continuing to eat a diet higher in fiber as we age also provides car-dioprotection. A large srudy found that increasing fiber later in life can decrease risk of cardiovascular disease in rhe elderly.97
Research has also shown that the sugars in fruit (fructose) significantly raise blood Triglyceride and cholesterol levels. |
Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey
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 It is interesting to note that some statins and cholesterol-lowering medications have the curious side effect of disrupting short-term and long-term memory.5 These side effects are often dismissed because there is no known mechanism in conventional biology to explain them. However, they make perfect sense in NES theory because the information imprinted into fats in the bloodstream may act as a kind of body-wide memory storage and retrieval system. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| N Engl J Med; 340:101-107, 1999
Bell L, Halstenson CE, Halstenson CJ et al: cholesterol-lowering effects of calcium carbonate in patients with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia. Arch Intern Med; 152(12):2441-2444. 1992
Benitz WE, Tatro DS: The Pediatric Drug Handbook, 2nd ed. Year Book Medical Publishers, Chicago, IL, USA; 1988.
Bergel E, Barros AJD: Effect of maternal calcium intake during pregnancy on children's blood pressure: a systematic review of the literature. BMC Pediatrics; 7:15. |
Shannon Brownlee
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 For instance, the criteria for who needs to be on a statin, or cholesterol-lowering drug, were redefined in 2001, more than doubling the number of Americans who could be put on drugs like Lipitor and Zo-cor from about thirteen million to thirty-six million. Many experts argue that these new guidelines are based on a faulty interpretation of the medical evidence and could actually prove harmful to many people who wind up taking the drugs. Critics also note that eight of the nine authors who crafted the revised guidelines were being paid by the companies that make statins. |
Bottom Line Health
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| We all know that cholesterol-lowering statins are widely prescribed. Are they unnecessary? Despite being on the market for 18 years and becoming the best-selling class of drugs, statins have never been shown in randomized, controlled trials to provide a significant health benefit when used by women of any age and men older than 65 who do not have heart disease or diabetes. Even so, millions of people in both groups are now taking a statin drug.
•Is it ever advisable to take a statin? |
Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews
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 An Israeli study that documented a cholesterol-lowering effect for tea also noted that tea drinkers are much less likely to be heavy smokers or alcohol drinkers. Just the opposite is true for coffee drinkers. It would probably be a good idea for coffee drinkers to trade in their cup of coffee for a cup of tea and adopt the other healthful habits of tea drinkers, as well.7
A Dutch study indicated that drinking tea is inversely related to smoking cigarettes and eating a fatty diet, but directly related to eating a diet high in vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and fiber. |
Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.
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 Years ago, in the early 1980s, when cholesterol-lowering drugs first hit the mass market, studies found an increase in suicides, homicides, and automobile accidents. But those results were somehow overlooked in the rush to prescribe these "wonder" meds.
At the 2005 American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), I attended a lecture by a prominent cardiologist, Dr. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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| One potential dietary influence for a cholesterol-lowering strategy is to consume more soy protein. This is perhaps my favorite recommendation to women because soy also offers many other potential benefits, including mild reduction of menopausal symptoms and potentially reduction in the risk of breast cancer and uterine cancer. Observations in large Asian populations, whose diet includes soybeans as a basic food group, show a lower incidence of CVD than in populations who consume a traditional Western diet. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Example: An average daily dose of the popular cholesterol-lowering statin Lipitor costs approximately $98 per month. Lovastatin, a generic of the statin Mevacor that is used in lower-risk patients, is available for $37 a month.
The next time your doctor writes you a prescription, be sure to ask the right questions to save money, advises Diane Nitzki-George, RPh, a clinical pharmacist in Evanston, Illinois, and the author of Generic Alternatives to Prescription Drugs (Basic Health)...
•Is a generic available? |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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| I also added in some nutrients such as CoQ|0, fish oil, and other mind enhancers, as well as cholesterol-lowering nutrients. Luckily for him, he soon recovered his brain power, unlike others less fortunate.
The higher the dose, the greater the depletion, so the lowest effective statin dose is best.
The drugs lower cholesterol by inhibiting the action of the enzyme, called HMG-CoA, that is responsible for cholesterol production in the body. It just so happens that HMG-CoA is also needed to make CoQ10. When you replenish CoQi0 with a supplement, you can diminish symptoms related to its lack. |
Elaine Magee
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 As further evidence of the link between these two diseases, high blood pressure
SYNERGY IN ACTIO
ALMONDS
Nuts in general contain a combination of various cholesterol-lowering plant food components. Here's the fact that got my attention, though: In virtually all studies that examined the impact of nuts in our diet, nut consumption has been associated with a reduction in coronary heart disease risk.
Each nut contains its own unique profile of phytochemicals, types of fatty acids, and types and amounts of fiber. It's no accident that the Portfolio study chose to use almonds. |
| And by limiting full-fat dairy products, higher-fat red meats, poultry skin, stick margarine (except cholesterol-lowering types), cookies, crackers, and fast-food french fries, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease. Try to keep saturated fat to less than 7 percent of your total calories per day (about 15 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet), and try to eliminate trans fats completely.
Size Matters When It Comes to Cholesterol
Canadian heart researcher Salim Yusuf, MD, suggests that cholesterol particle size also helps determine risk of heart attack. |
| See page 12 for cholesterol-lowering strategies.)
4. Control high blood pressure. Keep your blood pressure out of the danger range (systolic pressure above 140 and diastolic above 90) using any means available-through diet, exercise, and medication, if necessary. This is a concern to the nearly one in three adults with high blood pressure. Here's the incentive: People with blood pressure of less than 120/80 mm Hg have about half the lifetime risk of stroke, compared with those who have hypertension, according to the AHA's "Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics?006 Update."
5. |
| Other cholesterol-lowering benefits of a vegetarian diet include a higher consumption of plant stanols (2 grams a day is ideal) and soluble fiber (reaching the recommended 25 grams a day is relatively easy on a vegetarian diet). You don't have to become a full-fledged vegetarian to see results, however. Try to replace meat-based dishes with vegetarian entrees a few times a week.
Focus on flaxseed. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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| For instance, as reported by USA Today on October 16, 2004 ("Cholesterol Guidelines Become a Morality Play") eight of the nine doctors who formed a committee in 2001 to advise the government on cholesterol guidelines for the public were making money from the very same companies that made the cholesterol-lowering drugs that the doctors were urging millions of Americans to take. For example, one of the committee members, Dr. H. |
Elaine Magee
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| It's also probably better to get your soy in food form to fully benefit from the cholesterol-lowering properties of its protein. Processing can reduce the isoflavone content of some soy protein products by as much as 80 percent, warns soy expert Mark Messina, PhD, and isoflavone supplements alone may be ineffective. "Conceivably, isoflavones and soy protein work cooperatively to reduce cholesterol," he says.
If you require further convincing, here's one more reason to eat your soy in close to whole form: Soy contains "inactive" components along with the "active" ones we've just discussed. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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| The Status of Statins
The search for better cholesterol-lowering drugs led to the development of statins, a class of drugs that lower LDL cholesterol by blocking an enzyme that churns out LDL cholesterol in the liver, called HMG CoEnzymeA reductase. The enthusiasm among doctors for statins has resulted in the writing of prescriptions for 13 million people each year, many of whom don't derive any health benefits, as I'll explain in detail here. |
David W. Grotto, RD, LDN
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 Balance of unsaturated fatty acids is important to a cholesterol-lowering diet: comparison of mid-oleic sunflower oil and olive oil on cardiovascular disease risk factors. ] Am Diet Assoc. 2005 Tul;105(7):1080-1086.
Kapadia, GJ et al. Chemopreventive effect of resveratrol, sesamol, sesame oil and sunflower oil in the Epstein-Barr virus early antigen activation assay and the mouse skin two-stage carcinogenesis. Pharmacol Res. 2002 Jun;45(6): 499-505.
Sweet potatoes www.sweetpotato.org; www.cayam.com; www.ncsweetpotato.org
Bohle K, Spiegelman D, Trichopoulou A, Katsouyanni K, Trichopoulos D. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| SIL YBUM MARIAMUM
(See under Milk Thistle)
SIMVASTATIN
Bitter Melon (Bitter melon may potentiate cholesterol-lowering drugs)
SIROLIMUS
St. John's Wort (May result in sub-therapeutic sirolimus levels resulting in possible transplant rejection)
SITAGLIPTIN PHOSPHATE
Bitter Melon (Concurrent use may result in an increased risk of hypoglycemia)
Kudzu
(P. lobata may lower blood glucose levels)
SKELETAL MUSCLE RELAXANTS
Kava Kava (May increase sedative effects and CNS depression)
SLIPPERY ELM
Iron
(Reduced absorption of iron)
SODIUM NITROPRUSSIDE
Kudzu
(P. |
Dr. Steven R. Gundry
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 Therefore, he told them, they would both need to take cholesterol-lowering medication. They came to see me hoping that a change in diet might help solve the problem instead.
After their first two weeks of Phase 1, Sally was gloating! She had banished 9 pounds and Stu was right behind her with 8 pounds. A great start. Three months into the program, and sure enough, all their cholesterol problems were history. Both are 20 pounds lighter; but more important, they've learned that they didn't inherit bad cholesterol genes. They've just told their cholesterol genes to "be good! |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| The latest research attributes the cholesterol-lowering effect to the water-soluble polysaccharides, in particular B-glucans. They are also said to hinder prostaglandin biosynthesis. One study has shown Oats to have a positive effect in smoking cessation (Anon, 1997).
Glycemic Control Effects: Providing soluble oat extract in the diet improved glucose and insulin responses to food intake in men and women with moderate hypercholesterolemia (Hall-frisch et al, 1995). |
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