I know this is a hot button topic for some. And just by bringing it up I am surely going to step on some toes. That's okay. Because this is something people need to think about.

Just yesterday I was having a conversation with a patient about their cholesterol levels. They brought it up because they know we work with restoring normal function so she wanted to know my take on her situation.

In her case. She has high LDL cholesterol levels. The number is not important, but let's just say that it is well above the normally accepted levels. A couple of years ago they put her on a statin (cholesterol lowering) drug.

At the time I told her that she needed to start taking CoQ10 as that is a must for anybody on those types of drugs. Unfortunately, nobody else had told her that.

So now she is concerned about the statin drug itself and whether or not it was actually helping...

Before we get into that, I will tell you what I told her, "I am not in the business of dispensing medical advice." Why would I be. I am not a medical doctor.

Is this a chiropractic issue? As a chiropractor, I am professionally dedicated to optimizing the healing powers of the body and removing barriers and obstacles to health. I will let you be the judge of whether or not this issue falls into that category.

So I told her what I would tell anybody else in her situation, "review the facts and make your own decision." In her case, she doesn't need any research to tell her that she feels worse when she takes that drug than when she doesn't. You see, she travels a lot. Sometimes she forgets her statin drug and goes without it for a week. When that happens. She feels better. When she goes back on it. She feels worse again.

Some would say, "but there is no long term research that shows there are negative effects of statin drug use." Consider this though. Research is expensive. Really expensive. Who do you think might fund the tens of millions of dollars needed to conduct such a long term study? Pharmaceutical companies who profit from the sale of such drugs? I highly doubt it.

Set aside the safety issue for a moment and consider this. One cardiologist I read put it this way, "Blaming cholesterol for clogged arteries is like blaming firemen for burning buildings just because every time you see a house on fire there are firemen there!"

What I have heard and read from multiple cardiologists is that cholesterol does NOT deposit on your arterial walls because the level of cholesterol in your blood is high. Instead, cholesterol deposits on the inner lining of your arteries because your arteries are irritated. So, blaming cholesterol levels for your clogging arteries is like suggesting hiring more firefighters in a city will lead to more houses catching on fire.

In other words, your body uses cholesterol to protect damaged arteries. Now why arterial linings get damaged in the first place is a topic for another day. In her case, we performed a Vascular Risk Assessment to determine the health of her arteries so she could see if her arteries were functioning normally, but I can't reveal those results here because she has not received them yet.

But in closing consider this. Your body can't make testosterone or estrogen without sufficient cholesterol, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Read that last sentence again then think about it for a moment. That is just one of the reasons some people feel the way they do when they take statin drugs.

Want a natural alternative to normalizing your cholesterol levels and restoring vascular health, then give us a call. The number is listed on this site, or you can submit an appointment request through this site as well.

By Ryan Bowman