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 Patrick Holford, one of the UK’s top nutrition experts, explains why he thinks the new guidelines issued by Nice yesterday should be reconsidered.
The new guidelines issued by Nice yesterday say all adults aged 40 to
75 should be assessed for risks, including smoking, weight and blood
pressure and those with at least a 20 per cent increased chance of a
heart attack over the next 10 years should be offered treatment.
I completely disagree. Statins work by blocking the production of
cholesterol, which is a perfectly normal substance, and in the process,
stops the body producing Co-Q10, a vital heart nutrient, causing
harmful side effects. This was confirmed in research published last
month in the journal Nature. As a consequence, statins are far from
harmless.
The notion that cholesterol is linked with heart disease goes back over
fifty years, along with the idea of bringing cholesterol levels down
with a low fat diet to protect the heart. But both of these ideas have
been strongly challenged. For example, plenty of studies show that only
50% of people who develop heart problems have high cholesterol, while a
study in the BMJ in 2001 found no link between changing fat in the diet
and heart disease.
The best known side-effect of statins involves muscles problems. The
probable reason for this is that they stop the production of Co-Q10
which is found in all cells (especially those of the heart muscle) and
is vital to energy production. In one study of 14 healthy people, 10
developed heart rhythm abnormalities when given statins. This, say some
researchers, could explain the muscle weakness and also the memory loss
some people experience. Some practitioners recommend that anyone taking
statins should also supplement with Co-Q10 and a warning on statin
packets is now mandatory in Canada, saying that CoQ10 reduction ‘could
lead to impaired cardiac function’.
In fact the closer you look, the more questionable the benefits become.
You might assume that taking prophylactic statins would mean that you
would live longer overall. But that isn’t what the studies show. The
total number of heart attacks drops slightly but then the risk of dying
from other things goes up slightly, so overall life expectancy stays
the same.
My advice is to keep the heart healthy through diet and lifestyle
ensuring plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains in the diet, along
with foods such as beans, olive oil and eggs which are high in Vitamin
E; and reduce sugary foods, refined carbohydrates and stress. A low
glycemic load (GL) diet is the best way to lower both cholesterol and
heart disease risk. The most effective substance to raise ‘good’ HDL
cholesterol and lower ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol is not a statin – it is
niacin (vitamin B3), but this nutrient in not patentable or profitable,
and hence is rarely prescribed. In addition for prevention of
cardiovascular disease and if taking statins, take CoQ10 90mg a day.
It’s basic common sense that heart disease is a consequence of poor
diet and lifestyle factors, not a deficiency of statins. Recommending
millions of people to take drugs that block the body’s production of a
vital substance, that can impair heart function, fails to address the
true underlying causes of heart disease.
Patrick Holford is the co-author of Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs
which looks in more detail at ways to prevent heart disease using
nutrients rather than drugs. His new book Optimum Nutrition Made Easy
is published on 10th June. For more articles from Patrick Holford on
nutrition and health visit www.patrickholford.com.
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