Ron Rosedale, MD (mercola.com)

Statin Drugs Actually Increase Heart Disease

Indeed, low cholesterol levels have been shown to worsen patients with congestive heart failure, a life-threatening condition where the heart becomes too weak to effectively pump blood.

Statin drugs have been shown to also cause nerve damage and to greatly impair memory.

One reason that statin drugs have these various serious side effects is that they work by inhibiting a vital enzyme that manufactures cholesterol in the liver.

However, the same enzyme is used to manufacture coenzyme Q10, which is a biochemical needed to transfer energy from food to our cells to be used for the work of staying alive and healthy.

Statin drugs are known to inhibit our very important production of coenzyme Q10.

Importantly, while many cardiologists insist that lowering cholesterol is correlated with a reduction in the risk of heart attacks; few can say that there is a reduction in the risk of mortality (death).

That has been much harder to show. In other words it has never been conclusively shown that lowering cholesterol saves lives.

In fact, several large studies have shown that lowering cholesterol into the range currently recommended is correlated with an increased risk of dying, especially of cancer.

No Such Thing as Good and Bad Cholesterol

Because the correlation of total cholesterol with heart disease is so weak, many years ago a stronger correlation was sought.

It was found that there is so-called "good cholesterol" called HDL, and that the so-called "bad cholesterol" was LDL.

HDL stands for high-density lipoprotein, and LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein. Notice please that LDL and HDL are lipoproteins -- fats combined with proteins.

There is only one cholesterol.

There is no such thing as a good or a bad cholesterol.

Cholesterol is just cholesterol.

It combines with other fats and proteins to be carried through the bloodstream, since fat and our watery blood do not mix very well.

Fatty substances therefore must be shuttled to and from our tissues and cells using proteins.

LDL and HDL are forms of proteins and are far from being just cholesterol.

In fact we now know there are many types of these fat and protein particles.

LDL particles come in many sizes and large LDL particles are not a problem.

Only the so-called small dense LDL particles can potentially be a problem, because they can squeeze through the lining of the arteries and if they oxidize, otherwise known as turning rancid, they can cause damage and inflammation.

Thus, you might say that there is "good LDL" and "bad LDL." Also, some HDL particles are better than others. Knowing just your total cholesterol tells you very little. Even knowing your LDL and HDL levels do not tell you very much.

A mistake that is rarely made in the hard-core sciences such as physics seems to be frequently made in medicine.

This is confusing correlation with cause.

There may be a weak correlation of elevated cholesterol with heart attacks, however this does not mean it is the cholesterol that caused the heart attack.

Certainly gray hair is correlated with getting older; however one could hardly say that the gray hair caused one to get old.

Using hair dye to reduce the gray hair would not really make you any younger.

Neither it appears would just lowering your cholesterol.

Perhaps something else is causing both the gray hair and aging.

Even if elevated cholesterol were significant and heart disease (which I question) perhaps something else is causing the elevated cholesterol and also causing the heart disease.

Let's look little more at cholesterol or, as Paul Harvey was fond of saying, "the rest of the story."

First and foremost, cholesterol is a vital component of every cell membrane on Earth.

In other words, there is no life on Earth they can live without cholesterol.

That will automatically tell you that, in of itself, it cannot be evil. In fact it is one of our best friends.

We would not be here without it.

No wonder lowering cholesterol too much increases one's risk of dying.

Cholesterol also is a precursor to all of the steroid hormones. You cannot make estrogen, testosterone, cortisone, and a host of other vital hormones without cholesterol.

Click Here to Read Part 4 of "Cholesterol is NOT the Cause of Heart Disease"