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Fish Oil Works Better Than Statins at Improving HDL Cholesterol
A study has shown that fish oils are more effective than the statin drug Lipitor in positively affecting the levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol in obese and insulin-resistant men. HDL cholesterol protects against atherosclerosis by removing excess cholesterol from arterial cells, and low HDL levels can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly for those who are obese or insulin resistant.
In the six-week study, fish oils and Lipitor were given to 48 men, both separately and combined. Fish oil and Lipitor together greatly lowered plasma triacylglycerols and raised HDL cholesterol levels.
But only fish oil also influenced HDL cholesterol by altering the production and catabolism rates of HDL apolipoproteins (catabolism is the breakdown of complex molecules metabolically into simpler ones). Lipitor did not increase this effect when combined with the fish oils, and did not produce a similar effect on its own.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition July 2006; 84(1): 37-43
Now, combine this with the fact that Lipitor and other statin cholesterol lowering drugs don’t actually lower your risk of heart disease.
It was recognized that people with lower LDL’s had lower rates of heart disease. So it was believed, that if you lowered LDL’s with medication, your risk of heart disease would be lowered.
Well, this assumption was never actually tested or studied up until a few years ago.
And you know what all the studies are finding?
That NONE of the statin drugs actually lower your risk of heart disease.
Yes, they may lower your cholesterol, but they don’t actually lower your risk of heart disease.
The reason is because LDL is not the problem. LDL levels are the sign from your body that something is wrong. That something needs to be different.
Treating the symptom of High LDL’s is like taking pain medications to cover up pain and thinking the problem that caused the pain will go away.
This just isn’t the case.
I wrote an article (and it is in my book) about how the same thing that causes LDL levels to by high is the same thing that is the major contributing factor to heart disease. And that is why lowering LDL with drugs doesn’t affect the heart disease risk.
Because the cause of both was never addressed.
This same article I have here about how you can literally drop your LDL levels by 50 points in 2-4 weeks without any drugs or supplements.
Two Studies showing this:
One study, published in the August 2003 American Journal of Cardiology found that lowering bad cholesterol with statin drugs may not reduce the rate at which plaque builds up in the arteries surrounding the heart. This finding flies in the face of the widespread belief that lowering LDL cholesterol levels is the best way to reduce arterial plaque. In the study, participants taking varying doses of a statin did generally lower their cholesterol. However, all the groups had an average increase in arterial plaque of 9.2 percent.
Another study published in the December 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the effect of statin drugs versus usual care (improving diet, exercise, etc.). While the statin group did lower their bad cholesterol levels significantly more than the usual care group, both groups had the SAME rates of death and heart disease. |
