I was diagnosed with heart disease 2 years ago at age 37. My calculated coronary artery score was 402. Surprise, giving I am not overweight, exercise 3-5 times a week, total cholesterol was around 180,and don’t have family history of heart disease. Doctor immediately put me on Crestor 20mg. Test results since then have continuously had my total cholesterol in the low 90s. Hdl and ldl in low 40s, with trylglycerides around 20. I’ve asked several doctors they they for the most part believe “the lower LDL the better”. However, my functional medicine doctor believes otherwise. She cites long term cognitive effects due to statins. She believes I can take 10mg 2-3 times a week, not get the same result as far as lowering ldl, but would still receive the anti inflammatory property of the statin. She believes it’s inflammation in the coronary arteries that cause the buildup, not necessarily the total LDL (especially in my case b/c I had normal LDL to begin with). Therefore lowering the risks of the cognitive effects due to the lowered statin dosage.
Check out the video in post #18. Your cholesterol level of 180 was perfectly normal, 90 is way too low. In old people higher cholesterol is an indication of longer life. Your functional medicine doctor is right.
My wife and I had very high artery scan scores about 3 years ago so I started doing research. I took about 3 months off my trading and researched about 10 hours a day for 3 months. I looked at the studies, read several books, got on Medscape (pretending to be a doctor) reviewed magazine articles, wellness letters etc. I started out with a slight bias against following my cardiologist recommendation of the maximum 80mg of a statin drug but was willing to take it if it would benefit me. What I learned was mind blowing. Just a few highlights. 1. The diet-heart theory (lipid theory) is totally false. Even before statin drugs were developed meta studies concluded zero link between blood cholesterol levels and heart disease. A professor at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine calls it the greatest scam ever to be perpetuated onto the public. 2. Surgeon General's study of 12 years trying to link dietary fat to heart disease was terminated without issuing a report. (A person on the evaluation panel said they were not getting the results they wanted) 3. NIH funded Harvard Nurses Study 1, Nurses Study 2, and a third study cost 100 Million and lasted 20 years failed to provide a link between saturated fat and heart disease. 4. The war on saturated fat caused an explosion of heart disease because of the "low fat" products that hit the market with all their contaminates that cause oxidation and inflammation. 5. A Meta Study (summarizes all studies together) linking blood cholesterol levels to any cause death shows the absolute reverse of what you would be led to believe. The higher your cholesterol levels the longer you live and the lower your cholesterol levels the sooner you die. 6. Statin Drugs do decrease heart related deaths by about 1% but all cause death by people on statins increase by 1%. And that 1% reduction is only for men. Zero benefit for women. 7. The Reduction of heart deaths by statins is not because of the cholesterol reduction it is because it also reduces a natural inflammatory agent NNK2 (non nuclear kappa 2). NNK2 is needed to fight infections so this is part of the reason that statins increase the death rate for all other causes including accidents and suicides. 8. Side effects of statin drugs are enormous and vastly unreported by doctors. There is actually a study on this. 9. A Zocor study (also called the Japanese study) consisted of 44,000 patients all of which were on the drug Zocor) After being on the drug there was a wide variation in the patient's cholesterol levels but no statistical difference in heart events from the lowest levels to the highest levels. 10. I could go on and on and on but the bottom line is that doctors follow the AMA and AHA guidelines and have not done any research themselves to understand some of these things. It is one long trail of money. Just imagine the drug companies with AMA doctors on their payrolls as professional consultants. 11. A good primer on how we got to where we are is a 10 page article in Science Magazine called "The Soft Science of Dietary Fat" March 30, 2001. www.sciencemag.org I assume it is still available online but that was published 20 years ago and the lie is stronger than ever. I am not going to get into any arguments or try to influence anyone's medical treatment of their choice. I am just sharing a snippet of my research.
Very nice long summary of the statin fraud. IMHO the only thing that can effectively reduce build up is Niacin. The good thing is that it is fairly natural, well it is a supplement, although with avoidable side issues (flushing). Here is a YT video with a doctor explaining how he lowered his calcium scan score using Niacin: Another one: (I like him but he is a chiropractor) Also K2+D3+Mg is one way because they should be taken together. Niacin is still more effective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atorvastatin A 2014 meta-analysis showed high-dose statin therapy was significantly superior compared to moderate or low-intensity statin therapy in reducing plaque volume in patients with acute coronary syndrome.[24] The SATURN trial which compared the effects of high-dose atorvastatin and rosuvastatin also confirmed these findings.[25] Despite the high dosage, the 40 mg pravastatin study arm in the REVERSAL trial failed to halt plaque progression, which suggests other factors such as which statin is used, duration and location of the plaque may also affect plaque volume reduction and thereby plaque-stabilization.[26] Overall, plaque reduction should be considered as a surrogate endpoint and should not be directly used to determine clinical benefit of therapy.[25][26] Increased risk of adverse events should also be taken into account when considering high-dose statin therapy.[24][25][26]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atorvastatin#Major Cognitive There have been rare reports of reversible memory loss and confusion with all statins, including atorvastatin; however, there has not been enough evidence to associate statin use with cognitive impairment, and the risks for cognition are likely outweighed by the beneficial effects of adherence to statin therapy on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.[60][61][62][63]