How to Lower Cholesterol Without Medication
How to Lower Cholesterol Without Medication?
Statins are the most prescribed and profitable class of drugs in America. In 2005 almost 30 million people filled prescriptions for a statin medication but a reported 20 to 30% of those patients suffered the common side effect of muscle pain from these drugs3. Most people who are prescribed statins will take them for the rest of their lives, which makes understanding how to lower cholesterol without medication even more important.
When I turned 40 and had my annual physical my cholesterol was 238 – way over the recommended maximum of 200. Lucky for me my doctor offered me a natural therapy before prescribing Simvastatin or another statin drug. Unfortunately this is not usually the case, most doctors immediately reach for the prescription pad, and many patients needlessly suffer from statin’s side effects. To learn more about the natural remedies to lower cholesterol, click here to receive your free e-book: How to Lower Cholesterol Naturally.
How to lower cholesterol without medication? Be aware of cramps and muscle pain…
The most common side effect of statins such as Simvastatin, Lipitor and others, is muscle pain. This pain varies from mild soreness and tiredness to muscle pain that is so severe, patients report not being able to walk or climb stairs. Unfortunately muscle pain occurs in a reported 20% of patients taking statins3. In rare cases statins can also cause a life-threatening muscle condition called rhabdomyolysis This condition, pronounced (rab-do-mi-OL-ih-sis), can cause severe muscle pain, liver damage, kidney failure and death. Rhabdomyolysis can occur when you take statins in combination with certain drugs, or if you take a high dose of statins. This is why you should learn how to lower cholesterol without medication.
Liver damage is also reported to occur occasionally with prescription statin use. In this case the statin causes your liver to increase its production of enzymes that help you digest food. It is important to get periodic liver function tests every three to six months when taking statins. Additionally you could develop a rash or flushing after you start taking a statin.
To learn how to lower cholesterol without medication we recommend all-natural Cardiol, which contains pharmaceutical grade Omega-3, Red Yeast Rice and other ingredients that have been proven to lower cholesterol and are very well tolerated by patients that are not able to take statins. Users report seeing a 15 – 20% decrease in cholesterol in just 30 days.
How to lower cholesterol without medication? Doctors Routinely Fail to Diagnose Statin Side Effects
Patients frequently complain that doctors ignore their complaints of side effects with Simvastatin and other cholesterol-lowering drugs. It has been proven that statins can cause numbness in the limbs, liver damage, muscle pain and severe muscle injury. Cognitive and memory problems are also being studied to see if they should be added to the list of Lipitor side effects. Nevertheless, many doctors are unaware or unwilling to tell patients about statins side effects.
Research at the University of California, San Diego, published in 2007 looked at doctors’ behavior when dealing with patients who had complaints of statins side effects.
The main question being studied was: When patients provided good descriptions of their symptoms, did doctors acknowledge the possibility of Simvastatin or Lipitor side effects and assist the patients accordingly? The researchers focused on the three types of side effects which are most commonly reported. The first reported symptoms involved muscle pain, cramping, or weakness. Patients described their symptoms to 138 doctors. According to the patients, only fifty-three doctors (38%) acknowledged the possibility of statins side effects. The majority of doctors, eighty-five (62%), dismissed the possibility of statins such as Simvastatin or Lipitor causing these symptons1.
The second group of patients reported symptoms of nerve injuries (neuropathies) including pain, weakness, or loss of function to 49 doctors. Only seventeen doctors (35%) acknowledged the possibility of a side effect that could be related to statin. Thirty-two doctors (65%) dismissed the possibility. The third group of patients presented symptoms of cognitive disorders, including impaired memory or thinking, to 56 doctors. Sixteen doctors (29%) acknowledged the possibility of side effects. Forty doctors (71%) dismissed the possibility1.
After the interviews with the doctors, patients described their doctors’ attitudes about their symptoms. Many doctors attributed patients’ symptoms to age or their imagination. Some flatly denied that Simvastatin (Zocor) caused any statins side effects. Yet practicing cardiologists estimate that muscle symptoms occur in about 35% of all statin users, even though the drug companies’ claim an incidence of only 5%2. Some doctors in the study denied that statins caused nerve injuries, yet it has been shown that patients taking statins are 16 times more likely to develop nerve injuries than similar people receiving no medications2. Overall, this study demonstrated that nearly two-thirds of the doctors failed to diagnose common side effects of stains. Isn’t that amazing considering all of the published data. My personal theory is that most doctors don’t know about the safer, natural alternatives and so, instead of admitting that they don’t know how to help their patients, they try to convince them that the side effects don’t exist or are in their head.
How to lower cholesterol without medication? What are the natural alternatives to Simvastatin and Lipitor?
Given that statins are expensive and can cause long-term damage to patients and that there are clinically proven natural alternatives to statins such as Red Yeast Rice, Omega-3 and Niacin, it is very disturbing that the majority of doctors failed to offer safer all-natural remedies that don’t have the high rate of statins side effects.
I found an all natural product called Cardiol that combines all of these proven,natural ingredients in one capsule and it’s only 1 capsule a day!
To learn how to lower cholesterol without medication, I spent alot of time researching the alternatives to statins take advantage of the free resources I’ve compiled in this free e-book: “Top 7 All Natural Remedies to Lower Cholesterol“. Once you have all of the information you can make an informed decision with the help of your doctor to make the best decision for your health.
References: 1. Golomb BA, McGraw JJ, Evans MA, Dimsdale JE.Physician response to patient reports of adverse drug effects.Drug Safety 2007;30(8):669-675. 2.Naranjo CA, Busto U, Sellers EM, et al.A method for estimating the probability of adverse drug reactions.Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 1981;30:239?]45. 3. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/16/cholesterol.red.yeast.rice
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