House Call: Should I Stop My Statins?

Welcome to my weekly house call, your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is, Dr. Hyman, I've been hearing in the news all about statins, that there's some research that shows that maybe we shouldn't all be taking it. What's the story? Should I take my statins? Well, statins are the most commonly prescribed medication. things like Lipitor and Zocor and Crestor, these are medications to lower cholesterol. Here's the problem. The data on this is not as good as we think. In fact, we're finding out, oops, we might have made a mistake. A recent report showed that the calculator that estimated how many people should be taking statins based on their risk was really wrong. In fact, it recommended statins to far more people than it actually helped. which means that millions and millions of people are getting statins who don't need it because it's not without risk. In fact, we used to think that there were very few side effects, but the truth is up to 20% of people have serious side effects from the statins, like muscle pain and damage and aching or high muscle enzymes, and even if they don't, they still have damage to their cells. So here's a little secret people don't know. When you take a statin, It's a poison to a part of your cell that produces energy called the mitochondria. And when you poison that part of your cell, your cells can't produce energy effectively and they get sick and some of them die. So we call this mitochondrial damage and mitochondria are the single most important thing for healthy aging and wellness. In fact, in one study they took two groups of people, who were overweight and sedentary, and they put them both on an exercise program for 12 weeks. One group though, they gave them a statin. The other group, they didn't. And after 12 weeks, the group that had the statin showed no benefit in their fitness level. It's like they hadn't exercised at all. In fact, when they did muscle biopsies, they found that they were 4.5% worse in their capacity to make energy in their cells. It was like they went backwards. So this is quite serious and I believe in the next 10 years we're going to see a backlash against statins. We're starting to see it already. The news shows it can cause neurologic problems, that it may not benefit everybody we thought it may benefit, that there are risks to it, that it causes muscle damage and you know what? We're going to see more of that. So stay tuned but I encourage you to read my previous blogs on statins, on how they cause diabetes, how they cause neurologic problems, how we can actually lower cholesterol naturally, and learn more about how to take care of your heart health in a way that supports you rather than potentially hurts you. So thank you for joining me on my weekly house call. If you like this, sign up for the newsletter, share it on social media on Twitter and Facebook with your friends and family, and send me your questions so that next week I may make a house call to you.