Dr Brogan (go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-brogan-md/women-statins_b_4283650.html for the full article) cites the recent article by Dr Malhotra (please see previous blogs) and continues, "Based on unabated rates of cardiovascular disease despite a generation of statin users, and studies that demonstrate that patients presenting to the hospital with heart attacks don't have elevated total cholesterol, but they do have (66 percent of the time) metabolic syndrome, or a constellation of findings such as obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL, and insulin resistance. This phenomenon is driven by sugar and trans fat, not dietary, naturally-occurring saturated fat, and not by a lack of statins, but, perhaps, is exacerbated by the statins themselves, and particularly, in women."
In terms of both the physical and mental health of women Dr Brogan's answer is essentially a nutritional one: "Cardiovascular disease is a multi-factorial inflammatory problem with disparate drivers in different people. Lifestyle medicine is the best and most sophisticated intervention, and the only one indicated here, with no exceptions for women. This begins with good old exercise and diet. I advocate for no grains and sugar, consistent with what our genome is expecting to see. This is a naturally high fat approach with a focus on pastured meats, wild fish, eggs, nuts, and seeds. Know that any increase in cholesterol that may occur is consistent with beneficial profiles, and improvement in inflammatory markers. Most of the time, however, I am aiming to increase cholesterol to support my patient's mental and hormonal health, working at improving liver synthesis and healthy dietary fats."
It perhaps goes without saying that she does not recommend statins to her patients and she concludes, "All told, we have here an unsafe, unnecessary product that will now be recommended to healthy people to make them sicker, all when simple, health-fortifying lifestyle changes have been proven to be effective and globally transformative in ways no pill could ever hope to be. Women, listen up, and listen good to those trying to save you from a pharmaceutical fate. It's a depressing, confusing, libido-less, fat, and potentially lethal destiny, and there's a path to vitality paved with common sense. Walk it."
Sadly the one thing not mentioned in this powerful article is the benefit of Arginine Derived Nitric Oxide in protecting health, ameliorating hyperthyroidism and relieving stress. I have sent her an e-mail about this important aid to vitality. It works for me.