New Cholesterol Drug PCSK9 is Likely to Prematurely Kill You
July 29, 2013
Story at-a-glance
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A new class of drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors promises to
reduce LDL cholesterol levels to previously unheard of lows,
dropping your level below 50. These drugs will undoubtedly kill
many before the risks are fully realized
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Your body needs cholesterol for the production of cell
membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids that help you to
digest fat
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If your levels get too low, you increase your risk of dementia,
violent and aggressive behavior, depression, suicide, cancer,
Parkinson’s disease—and likely heart disease, as a result of
cholesterol sulfate deficiency
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Statin drugs, which one in four adults over 45 are using to
protect their heart health, can paradoxically have significantly
detrimental effects on your heart health
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The most effective way to optimize your cholesterol profile and
prevent heart disease is via diet and exercise
By Dr. Mercola
In 2004, the US government's National Cholesterol Education
Program panel advised those at risk for heart disease to attempt
to reduce their LDL
cholesterol to less than 100, or even less than 70, if
you’re very high risk. Prior to this, a 130-milligram LDL
cholesterol level was considered healthy.
In order to obtain the incredibly low LDL levels now
recommended, you typically have to take a
cholesterol-lowering statin drug, and sometimes two or three of
them in combination.
Now, a new class of cholesterol drugs known as PCSK9
inhibitors promises to reduce LDL cholesterol levels to
previously unheard of lows. Indeed, this type of drug can drop
your level below 50!
My prediction? These drugs will absolutely kill
people—not just some, but MANY. I cannot warn you against
this terrible idea enough. While many worry that their
cholesterol is too high, few give any thought at all to the
damage that can result if your cholesterol is too low.
This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I drove
(without drugs) my own total cholesterol levels down to a risky
75 when I was a naive young doctor. Alas, when it comes to
cholesterol, lower is not always better. In fact, when
your cholesterol levels go too low, a host of negative things
happen in your body.
Unfortunately, lowering cholesterol levels has become so
common in the US that nearly every American reading this either
knows someone struggling to do so, or has struggled to do so
themselves.
This despite the fact that there is no evidence to support
the notion that having an extremely
low cholesterol level is beneficial, and increasing numbers
of studies point to significant risks associated with
cholesterol-lowering drugs.
For example, a 2008 paper published in the American
Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs1
cites nearly 900 studies on the adverse effects of
HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), which run the gamut from
muscle problems to
increased cancer risk.
How Do PCSK9 Inhibitors Work?
Whereas statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) reduce your
cholesterol by blocking an enzyme in your liver that is
responsible for making cholesterol, these newer drugs, PCSK9
inhibitors, target and suppress a particular gene
involved in the regulation of how much cholesterol your liver
can actually filter out.
Researchers discovered that people with underactive PCSK9
genes had low levels of LDL. They also had low levels of
cardiovascular disease. Since high cholesterol has long been
mistaken as a primary cause of cardiovascular disease, these
findings were akin to striking scientific gold... As reported in
the featured article2:
“It's this discovery that has Sanofi and two other
major drug companies, Amgen and Pfizer, racing to develop a
drug that mimics the gene's effects. The best approach,
experts say, will be through monoclonal antibodies:
antibodies that are created in a lab and help your immune
system fight a disease or, in this case, fight
cholesterol...
'This is not to replace statin therapy,' said Joe
Miletich, senior vice president of research and development
at Amgen. 'This is actually to get patients to (their) goal
who can't get there.'... 'With a statin medication, you can
often get somebody's cholesterol between 70 and 100 mg/dL,'
said Dr. Elliott Antman, president-elect of the American
Heart Association and a dean at Harvard Medical School. 'If
you use these monoclonal antibodies, you could see a number
way less than 50.'"
I’ve told you before that the odds are very high— greater
than 100 to 1—that if you're taking a statin, you don't really
need it. From my review, the only subgroup that might benefit
are those born with a genetic defect called familial
hypercholesterolemia, as this makes them resistant to
traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol.
In my view, this warning is just as applicable when it comes
to PCSK9 inhibitors. Your body needs cholesterol and it doesn’t
matter how you lower it: statins, PCSK inhibitors, or diet and
exercise like I did. If your cholesterol drops too low, you will
suffer health problems that I review in the next section.
The Health Hazards of Having Too Little Cholesterol
Your body needs cholesterol for the production of cell
membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids that help you to
digest fat. It’s not hard to see then why too little cholesterol
can have such detrimental effects on your body—especially your
brain, where it helps your brain form memories and is vital to
your neurological function.
For example, research published in 20083
showed that low HDL is associated with poor memory and decline
in memory in middle-aged adults. If you value your brain and
want to keep it functioning into your senior years, you’d be
well advised to pay attention to what it needs, and that
includes cholesterol, along with healthful fats like omega-3.
But impaired memory and dementia are just the tip of the iceberg
when it comes to low cholesterol’s impact on your brain. If your
levels get too low, you also increase your risk of:
Even more importantly, heart disease may in fact be a sign of
cholesterol deficiency, according to MIT researcher,
Dr. Stephanie Seneff. Considering the fact that conventional
medicine has been telling us that heart disease is due to
elevated cholesterol and recommends lowering cholesterol levels
as much as possible, Dr. Seneff's claims may come as a complete
shock to some.
"Heart disease, I think, is a cholesterol deficiency
problem, and in particular a cholesterol sulfate deficiency
problem..."
She points out that all of this information is available in
the research literature, but it requires putting all the pieces
together to see the full picture. Through her research, she
believes that the mechanism we call "cardiovascular disease," of
which arterial plaque is a hallmark, is actually your body's way
to compensate for not having enough cholesterol sulfate. In a
nutshell, high LDL appears to be a sign of cholesterol sulfate
deficiency—it's your body's way of trying to maintain the
correct balance by taking damaged LDL and turning it into
plaque, within which the blood platelets produce the cholesterol
sulfate your heart and brain needs for optimal function...
What this also means is that when you artificially lower your
cholesterol with a statin drug, which effectively reduces that
plaque but doesn't address the root problem, your body is not
able to compensate any longer, and as a result of lack of
cholesterol sulfate you may end up with heart failure.
Have High Cholesterol? Address the Cause!
Contrary to popular belief,
high cholesterol is not a disease in and of itself. It is
actually a response to something gone awry in your body.
Cholesterol is produced whenever your cells become damaged, as
it’s a necessary component in making new, healthy cells, so if
you have a lot of damaged cells, you’re also going to have a lot
of cholesterol in your bloodstream. This is a sign that your
cells need, and are, being repaired. While most conventional
doctors do not recognize this sign for what it is and put you on
toxic cholesterol-lowering drugs, a more knowledgeable doctor
will address the root problem, which is typically
related to chronic inflammation brought on by:
- A diet too high in sugar/fructose and grains
- Too many processed, overcooked foods
- Lack of exercise
- Emotional stress
- Smoking
The remedy involves, of course, addressing these factors by
making simple lifestyle changes that are outlined in my
optimized
nutrition and lifestyle plan. Whatever you do, don’t fall
for the mistaken belief that the lower your cholesterol goes,
the better. If you lower your cholesterol through artificial
means without addressing the underlying causes for your elevated
cholesterol levels, your body will continue to degenerate. Leave
the decision of how much cholesterol your body needs up to your
body, and make the right lifestyle choices to keep your cells in
their top condition. This way you get the best of both worlds:
the right amount of cholesterol and a body in tip-top shape.
The Many Well-Known Health Hazards of Statin Drugs
First, if you are a woman, it’s critical for you to know that
statins are classified as a "pregnancy Category X medication"
meaning, it causes serious birth defects, and should
NEVER be used if you’re pregnant or planning a pregnancy. Last
year, the US Food and Drug Administration5
(FDA) also announced it’s considering additional warning labels
for statin drugs. Among them are warnings that statins may
increase your risk of:
- Liver damage
- Memory loss and confusion
- Type 2 diabetes
- Muscle weakness (for certain statins)
In all, statin drugs have been directly linked to over 300
side effects6,
including:
Cognitive loss |
Neuropathy |
Anemia |
Acidosis |
Frequent fevers |
Cataracts |
Sexual dysfunction |
An increase in cancer risk |
Pancreatic dysfunction |
Immune system suppression |
Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the
hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis, a serious
degenerative muscle tissue condition |
Hepatic dysfunction (Due to the potential increase in
liver enzymes, patients must be monitored for normal
liver function) |
Statins Cause Hallmark Symptoms of Heart Disease and Diabetes
Sadly, while millions of people are told to use statin drugs
as a form of “preventive medicine” to protect their heart
health, research shows that these drugs actually can have
significantly detrimental effects on your heart! How is that
preventive medicine? For example, a study published just last
year in the journal Atherosclerosis7
showed that statin use is associated with a 52 percent
increased prevalence and extent of calcified coronary plaque
compared to non-users. And coronary artery calcification is the
hallmark of potentially lethal heart disease!
Statins can also:
- Deplete your body of CoQ10, which
accounts for many of its devastating health effects. CoQ10
is used by every cell in your body, but especially
your heart cells. Cardiac muscle cells have up to 200 times
more mitochondria, and hence 200 times higher CoQ10
requirements than skeletal muscle. Therefore, if you take a
statin, you must take supplemental CoQ10, or
better, the reduced form called ubiquinol.
A recent study in the European Journal of
Pharmacology8
showed that ubiquinol effectively rescued cells from the
damage caused by the statin drug simvastatin, thereby
protecting muscle cells from myopathies. Again demonstrating
the necessity of CoQ10 supplementation during statin
therapy, a recent study9
evaluating the benefits of CoQ10 and selenium
supplementation for patients with statin-associated myopathy
found that, compared to those given a placebo, the treatment
group experienced significantly less pain, decreased muscle
weakness and cramps, and less fatigue.
- Interfere with the mevalonate pathway,
which is the central pathway for the steroid management in
your body. Products of this pathway that are negatively
affected by statins include sex hormones, cortisone, the
dolichols (which are involved in keeping the membranes
inside your cells healthy), and all sterols, including
cholesterol and vitamin D (which is similar to cholesterol
and is produced from cholesterol in your skin).
- Increase your insulin resistance, which
contributes to chronic inflammation in your body. Increased
insulin resistance can lead to heart disease, which,
ironically, is the primary reason for taking a
cholesterol-reducing drug in the first place. It can also
promote belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks,
chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, and diseases like
Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and cancer.
- Increase your risk of diabetes by
raising your blood sugar. When you eat a meal that contains
starches and sugar, some of the excess sugar goes to your
liver, which then stores it away as cholesterol and
triglycerides. Statins work by preventing your liver from
making cholesterol. As a result, your liver returns the
sugar to your bloodstream, which raises your blood sugar
levels.
Drug-induced diabetes and genuine type 2 diabetes are not
necessarily identical. If you're on a statin drug and find
that your blood glucose is elevated, it's possible that what
you have is just hyperglycemia—a side effect, and the result
of your medication. Unfortunately, many doctors will at that
point mistakenly diagnose you with "type 2 diabetes," and
possibly prescribe another drug, when all you may
need to do is simply discontinue the statin in order for
your blood glucose levels to revert back to normal.
Beware: Statins Can Also Completely Negate Your Fitness Efforts
One of the major benefits of exercise is the beneficial
impact it has on your heart health, and exercise is a primary
strategy to naturally maintain healthy
cholesterol levels. Alas, researchers recently discovered
that if you take a statin drug, you’re likely to forfeit most if
not all health benefits of your exercise. In fact, the study,
published in the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology10,
discovered that statin use led to dramatically reduced fitness
benefits from exercise, in some cases actually making the
volunteer LESS fit than before!
The key to understanding why statins prevent your body from
reaping the normal benefits from exercise lies in understanding
what these drugs do to your mitochondria—the energy chamber of
your cells, responsible for the utilization of energy for all
metabolic functions. As mentioned above, the primary fuel for
your mitochondria is Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and one of the
primary mechanisms of harm from statins in general appears to be
related to
CoQ10 depletion.
A 2011 review published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition
and Metabolism11
pointed out that exercise actually induces changes in
mitochondrial enzyme content and activity, which can increase
your cellular energy production and in so doing decrease your
risk of chronic disease. The fact that statin drugs deplete your
body of the primary fuel for your mitochondria helps explain why
certain statin users in the trial ended up with worse
aerobic fitness after a steady fitness regimen. There simply
wasn’t enough mitochondrial fuel in their system.
To Evaluate Your Heart Disease Risk, Get the Right Tests Done
If your physician is urging you to check your total
cholesterol, then you need to be aware that this test will tell
you virtually nothing about your risk of heart disease,
unless it is 330 or higher.
One of the most important tests you can get to determine your
real heart disease risk is the NMR LipoProfile, which measures
your LDL particle number. This test also has other markers that
can help determine if you have insulin resistance, which is a
primary cause of elevated LDL particle number and increased
heart disease risk. The NMR LipoProfile test easy to get and all
major labs offer it. Most insurance policies cover the test as
well. Best of all, even if your doctor were to refuse to order
it, you can order it yourself via third-party intermediaries
like Direct Labs, or you can order the test online, and get
blood drawn locally. Two other ratios you should pay attention
to are your:
- HDL/Total Cholesterol Ratio: (i.e. take your HDL number
and divide it by your total cholesterol number.) This should
ideally be above 24 percent. If below 10 percent, you have a
significantly elevated risk for heart disease.
- Triglyceride/HDL Ratio: Should be below 2.
I have seen a number of people with total cholesterol levels
over 250 who were actually at low risk for heart disease due to
their elevated HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen many people
with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of
heart disease, based on their low HDL. For four additional risk
factors for heart disease that do not involve your cholesterol
levels, please see my recent article:
Side Effects of Statins.
How to Optimize Your Cholesterol Levels Naturally
The most effective way to optimize your cholesterol profile
and prevent heart disease is via diet and exercise. Seventy-five
percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is
influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize
your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your
cholesterol and reduce your risk of both diabetes and heart
disease.
There is NO drug that can cure heart disease, as the
underlying cause is insulin and leptin resistance and arterial
wall damage—both of which are caused by eating excessive amounts
of sugars, grains, and especially fructose. So, in addition to
regular exercise, my primary recommendations for safely
regulating your cholesterol and reducing your risk of heart
disease include:
- Reduce, with the plan of eliminating grains and fructose
from your diet. This is one of the best ways to optimize
your insulin levels, which will have a positive effect on
not just your cholesterol, but also reduces your risk of
diabetes and heart disease, and most other chronic diseases.
Use my
Nutrition Plan to help you determine the ideal diet for
you, and consume a good portion of your
food raw.
- Start
intermittent fasting, which will radically improve your
ability to burn fat as your primary fuel and thus help
improve your insulin and leptin signaling.
- Get plenty of high-quality,
animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil, and reduce
your consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (trans fats,
vegetable oils) to balance out your omega-3 to omega-6
ratio.
- Include heart-healthy foods in your diet, such as olive
oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and
eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed
meats.
- Optimize your
vitamin D levels by getting proper sun exposure or using
a safe tanning bed.
- Optimize your gut flora, as recent
research suggests the bacterial balance in your
intestines may play a role in your susceptibility to heart
disease as well.
- Walk barefoot to ground yourself to the earth. Lack of
grounding has a lot to do with the rise of modern
diseases as it affects inflammatory processes in your body.
Grounding thins your blood, making it less viscous.
Virtually, every aspect of cardiovascular disease has been
correlated with elevated blood viscosity.
When you ground to the earth, your zeta potential quickly
rises, which means your red blood cells have more charge on
their surface, which forces them apart from each other. This
action causes your blood to thin and flow easier. By
repelling each other, your red blood cells are also less
inclined to stick together and form a clot.
- Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
- Be sure to get plenty of
good, restorative sleep.
Take Control of Your Health
The odds are very high that if you're taking
cholesterol-lowering medication, you’re wasting your money and
taking unnecessary risks with your health. From my review, the
ONLY subgroup that might benefit from statins are those born
with a genetic defect called
familial hypercholesterolemia, as this makes them resistant
to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol, which I
reviewed above.
Remember, your body needs cholesterol for the
production of cell membranes, hormones, and vitamin D, just to
mention a few. Cholesterol is also vital to your neurological
function. And there’s strong evidence that having too little
cholesterol increases your risk for cancer, memory loss,
Parkinson's disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression,
suicide, and violent behavior.
Taking a drug that can reduce your cholesterol levels down to
50 or below is absolutely a recipe for disaster, when you
consider all your biological functions that need
cholesterol!
Also keep in mind that contrary to what you’ve been told by
pharmaceutical PR firms, statins have nothing to do with
reducing your heart disease risk. In fact, this class of drugs
can increase your heart disease risk—especially if you
do not take
Ubiquinol (CoQ10) along with it to mitigate the depletion of
CoQ10 caused by the drug. So please, carefully weigh the risks
and benefits!
Poor lifestyle choices are primarily to blame for elevated
cholesterol levels, such as too much sugar, too little exercise,
lack of sun exposure and never grounding to the earth. These are
all things that are within your control, and don’t cost much (if
any) money to address. If you have a genetic defect, medication
may be needed. If you don’t, you may be surprised at how quickly
and easily your cholesterol levels will normalize when you start
implementing the required lifestyle changes.
If you’re currently taking a statin drug and are worried
about the excessive side effects they cause, please consult with
a knowledgeable health care practitioner who can help you to
optimize your heart health naturally, without the use of these
dangerous drugs. To learn more about statins, please see my
special report: "Do
YOU Take Any of These 11 Dangerous Cholesterol Drugs"?
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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