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.