Should women take statins for cholesterol lowering?
Should women take statins for cholesterol lowering?
THESE ARE FACTS that you are never told:
- It has never been shown in WOMEN that a high cholesterol carries any risk. But a LOW cholesterol is linked to ill health, in particular greater risks of dementia and cancer.
- A Norwegian study found that women with a total cholesterol between 7-8mmol/L did best. Lower values were NOT associated with better health.
- It has NEVER BEEN SHOWN that women taking statins (the standard treatment for “high” cholesterol) gain any health advantages. NO STUDY EVER!! Yet taking statins causes problems in both men and women. Therefore, according to the medical principle of FIRST DO NO HARM, blood cholesterol concentrations SHOULD NEVER be measured in women because there is no evidence that treatment makes any difference and the only effect of measuring cholesterol will be to cause HARM by causing anxiety.
- The cause of arterial disease is DIABETES. So, the key test is to see if you are insulin resistant and on the road to developing diabetes.
- The best blood lipid values that are linked to heart attack risk (as they predict levels of insulin resistance) are blood triglyceride and HDL-Cholesterol levels. The triglyceride levels must be below 1mmol/L and HDL-C must be above 1.5mmol/L.
- Added to this, if your fasting insulin and glucose values are low and your HbA1c is low, then you are good to go for 100 years old!
Written by Prof Timothy Noakes OMS
MBChB, MD, DSc, PhD(hc), FACSM, (hon) FFSEM (UK), (hon) FFSEM (Ire)