An elephant in the room, called ‘Eating Habits’
By Anne Laing
News: “Doctors should use cholesterol-lowering statin drugs more widely to prevent heart attacks and strokes, according to Britain’s healthcare cost-effectiveness watchdog”.
Comment: Would it not be cheaper to prevent the causes of high cholesterol, than to mass medicate? Despite what the pharmaceutical companies tell us (yes the same Big Pharma that has been exposed this week for influencing NHS policies), the cost to the country of supplying the nation with statin drugs runs into hundreds of millions of pounds, and may, in the long run, cost more lives and misery than they save.
Surely prevention and education is the key. Figures published in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society probe the more interesting question of how many people were eating diets that meet the recommended targets.
The answer is that only four men in a thousand were meeting the five most commonly cited targets recommended by the World Health Organisation (relating to intake of fats, sugars (less than 10% of total daily intake), salt, and fruits & vegetables.
Women were doing a little better, with twelve in every thousand meeting the five targets. Overall, a healthy diet was being eaten by fewer than eight per thousand adults, which is less than 1% of the population.
A good diet comes with hundreds of good side effects, Statins come with hundreds of worrying side effects, some very serious.
These cholesterol-lowering drugs are also linked to an increased risk of cataracts, memory impairment, diabetes and sexual dysfunction!
In independent studies, patients taking statin drugs reported side effects such as muscle pain, nausea, and nervous system problems.
It seems their acceptance by doctors is based largely on fear and misinformation. They have limited training in preventative health and drug companies pull the strings.
Taking higher doses of the statins Simvastatin (Zocor), Atorvastatin (Lipitor) or Rosuvastatin (Crestor) also increased risk of acute kidney injury by 34 percent, a condition that can be sudden, and fatal.
Statins are also linked to diabetes, liver damage, memory problems, muscle breakdown, reduced sensitivity to other medications, and more…
“When man makes it, it always comes with side effects. When we eat properly, it always comes with benefits”
Just read the side effects….!
- Increased risk of Diabetes,
- Headaches
- Depression
- Difficulty sleeping
- Muscle aches, tenderness, or weakness
- Drowsiness/weakness
- Dizziness
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Abdominal cramping and/or pain
- Bloating and/or gas
- Diarrhoea
- Constipation
- Rash
Mass medicating those over 50 will cause an extra load on our environment. Wash-out from the contraceptive pill, Viagra and Prozac, just to name few, are already polluting our waterways.
Is cholesterol even the bad guy these companies would have us think?
Some of the world’s top scientists and specialist doctors now think it isn’t. Cholesterol is vital for hormone development and the normal reference range for a healthy lifespan is much higher than we’ve been led to believe…
A diet high in coloured vegetables, lean protein and low in processed food and drinks as well as moderate exercise will lower high cholesterol.
Research has demonstrated the simple lifestyle changes are far more effective, and safer, for primary heart attack prevention than statin drugs.
So why is this issue larger today than ever before, when we are supposed to be living better and healthier?
It surely is the elephant in the room!
Part of the problem, not part of the solution…
We are up against it, with the huge pharmaceutical companies on one side trying to medicate all our ills (real, or as imagined by them), and the massive sugar, palm oil and processed food companies on the other side telling us the benefits of processed food from a packet – both pushing our health in completely the wrong direction.
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