Cancer, Heart Failure, and Cholesterol Lowering Drugs * Clofibrate, gemfibrozil, and all the statins, such as mevacor, and lipitor, are cholesterol lowering agents. All these compounds stimulate cancer growth in rodents. Blood levels of these compounds studied in rodents were close to those seen in patients taking statin drugs. But TV ads promoting the statins make no mention of these studies.
* Thanks to an East Texas cardiologist I learned the dangers of the statin drugs. A number of physicians and scientists believe the epidemic of heart failure today is due to the widespread use of statin drugs.
* Statins not only inhibit cholesterol but they also inhibit the synthesis of CoQ10, which is necessary for energy production in all cells, including cells of the heart.
Isn't it ironic that a drug prescribed to protect against heart disease actually causes heart disease. A number of drugs can cause, as an unintended consequence, a deficiency of CoQ10. Such drugs are prescribed for depression, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, as well as for high blood cholesterol.
Large amounts of CoQ10 are needed by the heart because of its high energy consumption. When CoQ10 is in short supply, as in the case of statin drug use, the heart suffers because there may not be enough CoQ10 to meet the needs of all organs.
Not only is CoQ10 a part of the electron transport scheme in mitochondria that produces the energy currency of the cells, it also is a very important antioxidant. It can receive or give electrons. This means it can be regenerated in the body, and therefore used over and over. Antioxidants from fruits and vegetables can not be regenerated.
There are reports that high doses of CoQ10 may improve immune function and be effective against certain breast cancers and prostate cancers.
Although the protective mechanisms aren't known it is suggested the antioxidant power of CoQ10 may protect the omega 3 fatty acids in their role of reducing harmful eicosanoid production.
Studies indicate that age related decline in CoQ10 production takes place in the heart first. Of interest are reports of health and longevity among isolated tribes who lived on their native diets in the 1920's and 30's.
Absence of cancer, heart disease, and high blood cholesterol in Isolated Peoples On Their Native Diets.
The human body has ability to heal itself or to resist infection. To perform this ability the body must be given proper nutrition.
Because of the world wide studies of Weston A. Price, D.D.S., we have a record of the extraordinary health of isolated peoples on their local diets, which did not include sugary foods or polyunsaturated vegetable oils. These studies covered the late 1920's and mid 1930's. His book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, first published in 1939, details this extraordinary health.
All isolated peoples on their native diets had exceptional health, including Eskimos, Indians, African tribes, Pacific Islanders, Swiss mountain dwellers and others. When some of these same peoples left their native diets for the white mans sugary foods of commerce their health deteriorated rapidly, including susceptibility to dental caries.
Everywhere he went Dr. Price found freedom from dental caries and other diseases among those who lived on their native diets. These native diets included lots of fish from the ocean and its tributaries, or animal protein and dairy products from the herds they shepherded.
African and Kenyan tribes whose diet was milk and meat, and therefore lots of animal fat, did not have heart disease, high blood cholesterol, or suffer from dental caries. Those tribes that subsisted on cereal grains and vegetables had much higher rates of dental decay.
A physician and surgeon who served among the Eskimos and Alaska Indians for over 36 years acknowledged that he had never seen cancer among those who lived on their native diet. But cancer was common among those who modernized with the white mans sugary foods of commerce.
A physician who was director of a hospital explained the use of the hospital had changed in the twenty-eight years he had been there. The grandmothers of that generation who were ready for birth went on their own, or with a family member, to the bush and return before long with the new baby. No big deal apparently.
But the granddaughters who were modernized by diet frequently had trouble delivering, and had to be hospitalized for medical intervention to make birth possible.
The children of those who were modernized had narrow faces and did not have room for all their teeth. Often they were mouth breathers because of poor facial bone development. They developed dental decay in a large percentage of their teeth.
This was in contrast to those who followed their native diets and had adequate nutrition through conception and delivery. Their children's health was better, tooth decay was virtually absent, and all their teeth, including third molars were intact. The differences were demonstrated with lots of pictures by Dr. Price in his book.
The modernized Eskimos became susceptible to tuberculosis at such a rate there was concern whether they would survive without help. Tuberculosis did not occur among those who stayed on their native diet.
Swiss mountain dwellers in Loetschenthal Valley were somewhat isolated. People were, however, able to travel to more populous parts of Switzerland and back. Dr. Price could tell who had ventured out of the Valley by contrast in dental caries susceptibility.
Some other mountain dwellers had easier access to other parts of Switzerland. Modern businesses had introduced dietary differences for the peoples choice. These other peoples provided Dr. Price a contrast in diet with reference to health, especially that of susceptibility to dental caries.
Loetschenthal Valley inhabitants were largely free of dental caries as long as they depended on their native diet consisting of milk, butter from cattle feeding on rapidly growing grass during the spring, cheese, whole grain rye bread which they grew, processed and baked in community ovens, meat from their cattle, and vegetables they grew in the summer.
At the time of Dr. Price visit to the Valley, other parts of Switzerland were engulfed in a tuberculosis epidemic, with many dying of the disease. Checking the record of deaths of the Loetschenthal Valley inhabitants, Dr. Price and others could find no record of any one dying of tuberculosis.
The same sugary foods and polyunsaturated vegetable oils, that contributed to many peoples health demise in the 1920's and 30's, fill our food store shelves today. And the modern nutritional diseases of obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, which struck many in the 1920's and 30's, are nearly epidemic among us today.
The author earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry. He accepted current nutritional guidelines for many years and followed a low fat diet. He learned of problems with the current nutritional dogma through an East Texas cardiologist who gave him a prescription for 3 books. These books began a study in the problems of nutritional diseases today. The website http://www.modern-diets-and-nutritional-diseases.com/ exists to expose those dietary and relate
