The Story of Bottled Water (2010)

Risk Associated with High Cholesterol Levels

Statins are generally recommended by drug companies for people who test above a certain LDL level. These cut-off values have been lowered through the years to such an extent that a large segment of the elderly population are advised to take statins. Implicit in the recommendation is the assumption that, since lower cholesterol levels are associated with lower risk levels, a drug that lowers cholesterol would return one to the risk level for a person with lower cholesterol levels. This assumption is questionable since cholesterol levels can be correlated with cortisol levels, infection levels, etc. Rather, cholesterol may be a marker for some other condition. This assumption has been discussed in more detail in one of my prior blogs.

Statins lower the risk for only a small segment for people with higher cholesterol levels. For elderly people without coronary heart disease, there does not seem to be a basis for these recommendations. According to the Framingham study, men with high cholesterol that are older than 47 years old are as well off or better off than people with low cholesterol¹. For women of any age, high cholesterol levels are not a risk factor². In fact, for older women, the higher the cholesterol levels the less the mortality risk. High cholesterol levels are also not important in elderly Australian men³. There are other papers in agreement with these findings and they are summarized and discussed in these books^4,5.

For those people with coronary heart disease there seem to be tradeoffs. Statins lower clotting factors but they also inhibit production of COQ10, dolichol,.and pyrroloquinoline quinone (PPQ). COQ10 and PPQ are both needed to facilitate mitochondria functioning⁶. Dolichol is needed for proper brain functioning. To lessen the bad effects from taking statins, one can obtain COQ10 and PPQ as supplements. The restoration of dolichol levels to former values is more problematical.

1.      1. Anderson KM et al. JAMA 257,2176-80, 1987.

2.      2. Oliver MF. Lancet 2, 655,1982.

3.      3. Simon LA et al. Atherosclerosis 117, 107-18, 1995.

4.      4. Ravnskov U. Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You, GB Publishing, Sweden 2009.

5.      5. Kendrick, M. The Great Cholesterol Con, John Blake Publishing, London 2008.

6.      6. Graveline, D. The Statin Damage Crisis, Duane Graveline Publishing, 2009.