A Heart Healthy Lifestyle

By: Deborah Ray

On the most recent edition of Homekeepers on CTN with host Arthelene Rippy, we discussed the government’s blessing of a statin drug, Crestor, as a preventive measure for heart attacks and cardiovascular events. This approval came after the JUPITER trial was stopped prematurely and the conclusion that there was a 44% reduction in heart attacks and cardiovascular/CVA events with the use of Crestor in those over the age of 60.

However, it was pointed out by mainstream critics that the study group was far from ‘normal’ as was touted by the study. All the participants had an elevated inflammation level as measured by a CRP blood test. Inflammation is considered to be an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease as well as diabetes and other conditions including strokes. All the participants were also either obese or had elevated blood pressure, hardly a healthy population.

Critics also ‘dissed’ the use of a medication, in this case Crestor, as a preventive measure. Lifestyle changes reduced the risk of heart disease by 83% in the Harvard’s Nurses Study as published in the August 2003 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine by Walter Willett, MD, MPH, and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health.

An important factor the study overlooked was the risk of side effects from Crestor versus the complete lack of side effects if lifestyle changes had been used in the study. All statin drugs can have side effects. These include a reduction in the body’s coenzyme Q10 levels, muscle aches and pains due to CoQ10 depletion at a rate of up to 20% of those who use the statin drugs, complete muscle shut-down or rhabdomyolysis, congestive heart failure related to coQ10 depletion, memory loss and an increased risk of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, an increased risk of cataracts, just to name a few. While the risks of side effects are rare in some, they are certainly not to be taken lightly.

The most important overlooked fact is the use of lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of heart disease events has ‘side benefits’. These same lifestyle changes reduce the risk of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, and other degenerative chronic disease.

Diet is a key factor that is ignored when the focus is on the use of a medication such as Crestor to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Additional fruits and vegetables such as the nutritional equivalent of 5 servings found in one ounce of Fruit of the Spirit are known to reduce the risk of not only heart disease but also cancer.

It was most eye-opening that the front page of the New York Times as well as Scientific American among other publications focused on mainstream critics of the government blessing of Crestor as a heart disease preventive factor. That is an important step forward as we are all concerned by rising health care costs in our country that suffers all too readily from diseases associated with poor lifestyle choices.

Focusing only the physical factors for heart attacks and CVA events also ignores the emotional and spiritual factors that have a role to play in these events. Many Americans now turn to integrative practitioners because they are more likely to address them as a ‘whole’ and that is a good thing as our health is a three-legged stool, a balance of physical, emotional, and spiritual factors.

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   September 8, 2010 at 2:06 pm

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