So you’ve had your cholesterol levels tested and you’re in the doctor’s office to discuss the results. Before you know it, you’re given a prescription for a cholesterol-lowering statin drug and a promise that everything will be fine in no time...

Sure it will be!

You may well feel reassured if you’re unaware that this pharmaceutical drug can cause numerous dangerous side effects...

A paper, published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, co-authored by Dr. Beatrice Golomb (associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and director of UC San Diego's Statin Study group) cites nearly 900 studies on the adverse effects of statins.

One of the most concerning side-effects linked to statins is that they lower your body’s levels of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). Ironically, CoQ10 is an essential heart nutrient and depleted levels can increase your risk of heart disease… the very condition statins are supposedly designed to prevent!

According to Dr. Golomb, low levels of CoQ10 increase the risk of congestive heart failure and chronic fatigue, hepatitis, myopathy, rhabdomyolysis and neuropathy (loss of cell wall integrity).

She believes this is powerful evidence to suggest that statin-induced injury to the function of the body's energy-producing cells, called mitochondria, underlies many of the adverse effects that occur to patients taking statin drugs.

If you’re currently taking a statin drug you should supplement with CoQ10 to help ensure your levels remain intact. Be sure to take it in its most potent form: ubiquinol… which offers eight times more heart protection than standard CoQ10.

Keep an eye out for our next post, which reveals even more dangerous side effects linked to statins....

Until Next time,

The Cholesterol Truth

Sources:

‘Statin adverse effects: a review of the literature and evidence for a mitochondrial mechanism.’ By Dr. B.A. Golomb and Dr. M.A. Evans, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov