...by a new client who came in the other day. She is and has been on statins for quite some time to try and get her cholesterol down.
At first she tried Pritikin (a VERY low-fat diet largely based on vegetables, grains and fruits. Fat in the diet accounts for a mere 10%!) This helped a smidge, but according to her doctor, not nearly enough.
Thus, she was statinated. (Note: I am VERY sympathetic to those who say "They put me on statins." I realize that the fear, however false, of death by arterial disease is a powerful motivator for taking these terrible potions. But the harsh, cold truth my dear friends is THEY don't put you on statins -YOU put YOU on statins.)
In my previous post I mentioned the physical horrors statins cause. (You might want to revisit this post and re-read before continuing on.)
She told me that she always feels weak, has constant headaches and has zero energy. She was so wiped out just sitting at my conference table that, before I probed her health history, it seemed as if she was just being aloof and disinterested about the program.
But I had to press the cholesterol issue for two reasons.
For one, her body was getting little to know energy producing, life giving foods and being slowly eroded by the drugs. (Remember even though she WAS eating fruits and vegetables the body can't do much with these gems if fat in the diet is low. And on Pritikin it's practically non-existent.) How could she expect to get any of the benefits of resistance training if she wasn't eating enough fat and protein for a puppy?
For two, if the statins are eroding her nerves and muscles (and they are) and strength training also breaks down proteins (for eventual rebuilding), I might be making the situation worse. I just don't know but I suspect it's possible.
So, I gave her the spiel. I suggested the books she should read, the websites to visit and answered all her questions as best I could.
Suddenly, she sat up tall and mustered up a surge of vitality and shot off this question:
"So I should not believe or follow the recommendations by Dr. Robert Jarvik?" (I don't know if any of you have seen the creator of the artificial heart doctor's shameless and cowardly Lipitor commercial - Pfizer must have plunked quite a pretty penny in his Swiss account for this one!)
"Correct." I shot back. She seemed shocked. But she also seemed even more interested. She said that taking the drug is stressful. Worrying about her liver, having to go for tests on a semi annual schedule and still not seeing the numbers go below 260 (which is actually perfectly healthy for a 60 year old woman) has got her all in a tizzy.
And to think that the current science on the subject actually says that she should just flush the drugs down the loo, start eating eggs, bacon and cream with zeal, and enjoy the rest of her life worry free from the cholesterol demon.
I think she's owed some money. The drug companies have stolen a decade of her life as she's been forced to live with and suffer from weakness, headaches, irritability, all of which has stressed her out and, more than likely, caused an HPA-axis dysfunction. This in turn allows far too much cortisol to be released into her bloodstream which Dr. Malcolm Kendrick believes (and makes a VERY strong case for in his book) causes damage to arterial walls leading her (and millions of others) far closer to arterial disease than she ever would have been.
But now she knows better.
You know who I think should combat this nonsense? Not the doctors (they haven't got the cash) - the meat industry.
If people KNEW that eating meat (especially red meat) was not unhealthy, but in fact among the healthiest foods in the world containing anti-aging nutrients such as B-12, carnosine, carnitine, glutamine, etc.) profits would, well, you figure it out. They could enlist (not hire) the docs who know better and run a campaign that would put Pfizer and Merck on their deceiving keisters.
If they take my advice and do this, I can't WAIT to see how much the drug companies will have to pay out to the folks who have been taking these horrific substances for decades. "Beelions and beelions..." Wee-doggy!
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