Statins & Accelerated Aging
There will come a time when we will look back at the age of widespread Statin use as we do with opioids today.
When I started reading and thinking critically about all the fraud I was sold as “fact” during my training, I did not foresee spending so much of my time harping on Statins.
Part of the reason why it has turned out this way, is because statins are so widely prescribed. What began as a drug to be used for people who have had a heart attack in the past to prevent another heart attack (called secondary prevention), quickly became a drug to be used to prevent a first time heart attack (primary prevention).
Today, the indication for statin prescription continues to expand.
People regularly reach out to me because their doctors have prescribed them a statin for reasons including:
LDL cholesterol is “high”
They are “pre-diabetic” - that is to say their Hemoglobin A1c is not high enough to be diagnostic of diabetes, but they still want to label you
They suffered a stroke because of a hole in their heart (called a patent foramen ovale), that allowed a clot to circumvent the lung circulation (where it would be dissolved) and go straight to the brain
The reasoning doctors use to sell this drug have just become increasingly more absurd.
Absurd strictly on the basis of clinical trial data that supports its use.
We aren’t even talking about the physiologic consequences of putting statins in your body, and the widespread side-effects including:
Mitochondrial disruption
Muscle pain/death
Diabetes (yes, the drug being used in “pre-diabetics” actually causes diabetes).
Dementia
And, even heart attacks.
That’s all to say that, as time goes on…more and more people who I care about are being given this poison by their doctors…and it’s very hard to unravel all of the nonsense that surrounds the justification of its use…and the gaslighting involved in obfuscating all the damage its causing.
That is why I write these articles. Trying to communicate with those I care about.
This article will not address many of the questions and rebuttals I typically get when talking about statins and cholesterol.
If you are truly interested in the nitty gritty, this article has quickly become one of the most well-received.
Aging & Senescence
Longevity and quality of life seem to be all the rage today. So, let’s talk about it.
When we speak about “aging” we do not merely mean time passing. We can think of that as chronologic age.
What we are really interested in is senescence - or senility. This is a cellular/physiologic term as much as it is a term you’d use to describe a grumpy old person.
As we age, our cells degrade in their ability to heal, grow, and otherwise dedicate resources for physiologic function and thriving - what we can broadly refer to as metabolism.
In our current understanding of physiology, there are a couple of hallmarks of aging that we often refer to. These include:
Decreased capacity for our tissue to heal and grow
Decreased metabolic efficiency and function
A little known effect of this is the degree to which our mitochondria (metabolic powerhouse) produce new water
this is directly related to many of the hallmarks of aging, including things like reduce fullness or “plump” of our tissues
Directly related to the above is increasing stiffness and rigidity (or decreased flexibility)
This can be seen on the macro scale (with joints) and on the micro scale (arteriosclerosis - or stiffening of arteries)
One of the things which helps our cells and tissue maintain fluidity and adaptiveness is cholesterol or lipids. They do this in many ways. One is by directly inserting itself in the structure of our cells. Another is by improving the movement of energy flow throughout the body, like a good conductor.
Without cholesterol (or plaque) deposition, our arteries become more rigid and less adaptable. Without endogenous water production, our tissue gets dry.
These combination of factors is why I believe statins cause stiffening and calcification of arteries. Statins block much more than just cholesterol production. In fact, statins block the production of thousands of important proteins, hormones, and regulators in the body.
On the one hand, statins are blocking the production of cholesterol. This leads to loss of the factor which promotes fluidity, adaptability, and healing.
On the other, statins also directly disrupt the mitochondrial pathway that produces energy (ATP) and water.
The result is rigid and inflexible arteries.
The consequences of this can be seen in the elderly population.
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