Talk about health

Being told you have high cholesterol may not rank alongside getting bad news of cancer, but it is the start of justifiable worry about your heart. Publicity suggests cholesterol is the one and only risk factor, and a heart attack will surely follow - unless you get your cholesterol down! So, you embark on a lifetime of drug taking, with your doctor's blessing. And all will be well ... or so you think.

As with all health-related topics, the above scenario simply doesn't hold for everyone. For instance, will you take your tablets for the rest of your life? The research tells us that quite a lot of people stop taking the drugs after a year or two. Then what? I haven't seen any results on follow-ups of these people.

Is high cholesterol the villain it is portrayed? That's the real question. It seems that half the people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol. And the majority of people with high cholesterol never suffer a heart attack. So, clearly something else is involved along with cholesterol.

Well, yes there is. C-reactive protein is recognised as a better measure of risk for heart attack. Other factors include family history, blood pressure, excessive weight, exercise, diet, and smoking. And these factors have an effect on inflammation in the heart and blood vessels, and inflammation follows damage. The result is that cholesterol is now seen as part of the way your body tries to deal with inflammation - the more inflammation the higher the cholesterol.

Even if you think taking drugs to lower cholesterol is the answer, have you considered there are side effects related to every drug and the cholesterol-lowering statins are no exception? The conventional medical professions tell us that the statins are a safe group of drugs. Yet stories abound of how the statins are the cause of some worrying side effects. Muscle pain is the usual and most common side effect.

However, over the past few years reports have emerged about memory loss caused by the statins. A US doctor was taking atorvastatin (Lipitor) and realised he had lost his memory for a few hours. His own investigation revealed the statin drug was the cause. He stopped his medication and recovered completely.

After reporting his story on the Internet, hundreds of other people confirmed the same thing had happened to them. And just last week another case was chronicled on a reputable health site. Once again, a successful, intelligent businessman found he had trouble remembering things. He got lost driving in areas he knew well and had to carry a note pad with him to jot down reminders. Dementia or Alzheimer's disease was his first thought, but he was wrong.

Again, investigation discovered the link with atorvastatin, and he began the process of weaning himself off the drug. This involved changing his diet to include more soluble fibre in beans, peas, fruit etc; increasing his intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish; snacking on a dail handful of nuts and introducing some flaxseeds. Added to this he increased his weekly exercise regime.

With carful management of these and other diet and lifestyle changes this person managed to get his cholesterol down without the statins. His memory is back to normal.

These stories and many others point out the potential problems with cholesterol-lowering drugs such as the statins. Why take the chance. High cholesterol is a warning that things are not as they should be. The important thing to remember is that you can get your cholesterol down by taking some judicious steps to improve your diet and exercise. Once you have incorporated them into your life, review the situation and only then consider the necessity of taking a statin.

Remember the fact that high cholesterol doesn't necessarily mean a heart attack is coming. Normal cholesterol doesn't mean you won't have a heart attack, either.

Yes, try to get cholesterol back to normal by changing your habits. But if you feel better after that, why take the chance with a statin?

You can read the whole story of cholesterol, heart healt, statins and natural and alternative ways of lowering cholesterol by getting a copy of my book All About Cholesterol - villain or saviour?. Just log onto http://www.healthexplored.co.uk and follow the links to the secure order page and look for the big green heart. You'll get your digital copy by return and discover how you can look after your cholesterol without drugs.

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