This video discusses statins and heart health, emphasizing that diet and lifestyle are often overlooked in favor of medication due to financial incentives in the pharmaceutical industry. The speaker highlights that statins may only extend life by a few days and come with various risks, like increasing the chance of diabetes, muscle damage, and even higher mortality rates in certain groups. She advocates for individual advocacy, questioning medical advice, and prioritizing natural prevention methods like a healthy diet, exercise, and stress management.
Key Takeaways
1
It's important to be your own advocate for health, question medical advice, and research information for yourself, especially regarding financial biases in the medical field.
2
The speaker believes that diet and lifestyle are the cure for 90-95% of illnesses, including eating right, sleeping right, exercising, avoiding toxins, and managing stress.
3
Financial incentives in the pharmaceutical industry prioritize drug development over lifestyle interventions, even though lifestyle is key to reversing chronic diseases.
4
Research suggests statins, a top-selling drug, only postpone death by a median of 3-4 days in both primary and secondary prevention settings.
5
The "numbers needed to treat" for statins to prevent a heart attack are high, meaning many people need to take the drug for one person to benefit, while also risking side effects like diabetes or muscle damage.
6
Cardiologists are often trained in drugs and procedures, not necessarily in the root causes and lifestyle changes needed for cardiovascular disease prevention.
7
While statins lower cholesterol, studies question their effectiveness in significantly reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, or dying, with some research even suggesting an increased death rate in certain users.
8
Statins may lead to several adverse effects including increased coronary calcification, neuropathy, heart failure, and potentially increased risks for certain cancers and dementia.
9
Cholesterol is vital for life, hormone production, vitamin D formation, digestion, and brain function, and there's a "sweet spot" for cholesterol levels and mortality.
10
A Mediterranean-style diet rich in vegetables, healthy fats, fiber, and specific supplements like omega-3s, CoQ10, and magnesium, along with stress management and avoiding toxins, are crucial for heart health.
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0:01
good morning and welcome to another
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edition of today's nutrition where we
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look at what is new in research what's
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hot in the news or any topic that can
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help us lose weight feel great or live
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longer better and since this is the last
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part of February I really want to catch
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you up with on you really need to know
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about the latest in heart health and to
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have a deep understanding of the
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research around it a lot isn't super new
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I have covered a lot of it in the last
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few years but there may be some
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surprising things here that you need to
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know so you can make very informed
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decisions about your health I encourage
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everyone to be their own Advocate not
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just taking somebody's word for it
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because they have some initials behind
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their name I want you to dig in and know
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for yourself that's why I'm going to
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give you the research and you can follow
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up on it so I can tell you that you
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can't count on any anyone else to value
1:01
your health more than you do I think you
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need to make the choices that affect
1:08
your Health and Longevity knowledge is
1:11
power but you need to use that power so
1:16
today more of an educational show things
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I think everybody should know but the
1:22
power of knowledge is in the action look
1:26
up things for yourself make the changes
1:28
in your diet and lifestyle that will
1:30
really create the Health and Longevity
1:33
talk to your doctor if you are on meds
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and work with them to monitor any
1:38
changes you want to make never go off
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anything that's been prescribed without
1:44
working with your doctor in heart health
1:47
there's some kind of complex
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truths and the pharmaceutical industry
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and the promotion of flawed data smoke
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and mirrors you need to know about but
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first you probably know this is the
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truth ultimately you always want to
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follow the money and look for bias I'm
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totally upfront about my bias diet and
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lifestyle is the cure for 90% of all the
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illness we Face diet and lifestyle 95%
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of what I teach is Eat Right sleep right
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exercise avoid toxins Stress Management
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and developing a really good resilient
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attitude the six Heavenly steps from my
2:30
book look I also want you to know I can
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go on PubMed and prove anything I want
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to okay so I guess I'm telling you
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always question everything and
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especially follow the money it tells the
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real
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truth medical schools and institutions
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get millions of dollars of funding from
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the far pharmaceutical companies they
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pretty much control the education of
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medical doctors and in the doctor's
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defense you can only go as far as you're
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taught as Dr Casey
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means discloses in her wonderful book
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everybody should read it good
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energy she was uncovering the fact that
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all the patients
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needed diet and lifestyle to cure what
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had what they had but she was told these
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people are here for drugs and surgery
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and that's what you were trained for if
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you want to do diet and lifestyle you
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shouldn't be a doctor that was Stanford
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Premier place to go for Medical Training
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she saw the flaws but was told to never
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mind the pharmaceutical establishment
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knows lifestyle is the key to curing
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chronic disease but there's no money in
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reversing it but keeping it chronic so
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people need to stay on the drugs now
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that's the ticket so yes diet like
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lifestyle work but you're only going to
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get $5 for lifestyle research but you're
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going to get 150 million for drugs that
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have payback there's an inherent bias
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there follow the money I know as a
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dietician insurance companies are going
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to reimburse just about as much as a
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fast food worker wage no money in that
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when you can prescribe Statin surgery
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three or four or 15 drugs
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all the things the medical
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infrastructure is designed for and
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besides I think the hospital dietitians
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are still doing out the 1970s lowfat
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diet for heart disease it's
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tragic professor
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John ianus from Stanford he's really a
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genius he's considered the Steven
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Hawkins of research I mean read his
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resume o
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my well he says there is a big risk
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factor for false research the greater
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the financial and other prejudices in
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the field the greater the risk for it to
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be
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untrue in other words if there's a lot
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of money to be made by giving hath
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truths there's a great risk in the whole
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truth not being
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told with that in mind the number one
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selling drug statens in 202
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2115 billion of sales on statens there's
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a lot at stake there in 2015 a Lancet
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publisher John Horton he was the
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publisher of Lancet wrote an editorial
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that said half of published material is
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not true it is biased and
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corrupted okay so the British medal
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medical
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journal states that we have have a lot
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less cardiovascular disease death from
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not smoking emergency room treatment in
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acute settings you know the clot Busters
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and all that and
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defibrillators we are better at saving
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people in
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crisis so they talk about primary
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prevention you know that's when somebody
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has a risk factor but they've had no no
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incident no heart attack no stroke
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secondary is there to prevent a second
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event now I'm going to tell you some
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things that are really really insightful
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because a lot of the interventions lead
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to only living 4 days longer if you take
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a Statin so the British Med medical six
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different studies for primary prevention
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and five for secondary prevention follow
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up somewhere between two and six years
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identified death was postponed between 5
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and 19 days in primary
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prevention and 10 to 27 days in
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secondary prevention with the median
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middle postponement of death per primary
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and secondary 3.2 or
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4.1 days okay translation statins will
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decrease cholesterol but is that the
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real culprit because life extended only
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three or four
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days let that sink in
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another insightful piece of information
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comes down to a couple of my least
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favorite classes
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statistics every doctor should become
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refreshed in this piece of calculations
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numbers needed to treat great website
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look it up the
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nn.com numbers needed to treat how many
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people you need to treat for benefit for
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example somebody has a urinary tract
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infection you use an antibiotic it's
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100% affected so the benefit is one it
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works because it gets rid of the
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infection one okay Statin look it up
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numbers needed to prevent another heart
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attack 89 over five
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years okay if primary so just prevention
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2117 numbers needed to treat
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numbers needed to harm increase
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risk of diabetes or muscle damage 204 or
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21
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respectively but then if there's a heart
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attack or stroke already high-risk
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83 needed to treat for 5
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years one in 83 people may have their
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life saved or prolonged after 5 years
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yeah 2009 the director of the max plank
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Institute that's where Einstein trained
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he thinks it's an ethical imperative for
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all doctors to understand relative risk
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the website the N
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nd.com pretty
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insightful you know there's such
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conflict of interest you know and the
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research is
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cherry-picked and you can't blame the
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cardiologist though cuz if you're a
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hammer everything looks like it needs it
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you know a nail cardiologists aren't
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trained in the causes of cardiovascular
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disease they're trained in drugs and
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ultrasound stress testing angiography
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you know you can only go as far as
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you're trained I love that quote I want
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my friends family customers to be well
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and Thrive live to 100 know you're there
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and glad you're there not go bankrupt
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from a chronic disease that wipes them
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out prevention and
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reversal do statins lower cholesterol
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yes absolutely they can lower
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cholesterol and low density lipoproteins
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but is the real question do statins
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lower the risk of a heart attack stroke
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or dying you now we can go a little bit
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deeper 2,000 study of over 70,000 people
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looked at the benefit of Statin for
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primary prevention remember risk factors
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but never have had a stroke a heart
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attack or even a stent
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22 2022 Journal of the American Medical
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Association looked at studies on primary
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prevention risk factors no event and
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secondary prevention they'd had a heart
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attack or something conclusion was very
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similar annual mortality
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0.2% lower in stattin heart
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attacks
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0.3 lower in Statin users stroke
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0.1% and oh dear could Statin increase
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your risk of dying M 2017 Journal of the
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American Medical Association found an
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18% increase
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in death rate of Statin drug users
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versus
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placebo death rate was 34 4% higher in
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those over 75 years
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old ah
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so finally many people take statins
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because of um coronary calci calcium CT
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scan okay may be of interest it shows
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that statin drugs actually increase
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coronary
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calcification theory behind that is
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because of it interfering with the
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vitamin K inhibition or decreased
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production of
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glutathion there's another I mean
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continuing on Statin over two years has
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a 26 times higher risk of
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neuropathy statins may also lead to
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heart failure and cardiomyopathy
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possibly because of lowering of the
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CoQ10 could statins increase cancer risk
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skin cancer especially there was a
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conclusion in the study of the Journal
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of the American Academy of
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Dermatology that it may
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increase skin
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cancer possibly because of its
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interference with F absorption Omega-3s
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in
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particular large study in the journal
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movement disorders states that Statin
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users with Parkinson's also have the
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double the risk for
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dementia you know a lot of Studies have
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failed at demonstrating an increased
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risk for dementia in Statin users but
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man oh man I have seen a lot of people
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who've complained about cognitive issues
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when they take statins I think there's
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more to be covered there and there's an
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association between esophagi and gastro
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esophageal reflux
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gird in the 2017 publication also links
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to osteoporosis chal rectal cancer
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bladder cancer lung cancer mental health
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issues biggest danger of all I think
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Statin give a false sense of security I
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so agree with that many people think
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they can just take a pill and eat and
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drink whatever they want with no
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consequences truth is we can't live
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without cholesterol you need cholesterol
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for Life hormone production every
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hormone has a stero or cholesterol
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backbone estrogen progesterone
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testosterone so you got low
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tea think about that vitamin D formation
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digestion your cell membrane is packed
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with cholesterol your brain has 25% of
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your body's cholesterol it is needed for
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the brain the nerve
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conduction and this is this is my bias
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here the Mr fit trial showed there's a
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sweet spot for cholesterol and mortality
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and it's somewhere between 160 and 260
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above 260 higher risk of dying below 160
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the same here's where my bias comes in
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it really underscored prevention and
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favorable Lifestyles nutrition exercise
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not smoking keeping out the toxin
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and what I really loved it embraced the
14:32
Maha moms those young gals who proudly
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call themselves crunchy preparing for
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conception and being careful throughout
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pregnancy being watchful of exposures
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and helping their children develop
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lifelong habits encouraging that
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Mediterranean diet with lots of veggies
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and heart healthy omegas and olive oil
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okay so that's all that I'm going to say
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about the statens but what I want you to
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know is is
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prevention diet you know you should have
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lots of vegetables this is kind of the
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Mediterranean diet or the DASH diet
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whatever you want to call it but
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vegetables and low sugar fruits a little
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bit not a lot super low and sugar an
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occasional treat but man oh man keep it
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low healthy fats like olive oil ooh lots
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and lots of olive oil nuts good fresh
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nuts fatty fish wild CAU and of course
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clean
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protein now we all know oats are good
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oats have a lot of beta glucan and
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soluble fiber in fact you may remember a
15:39
book from 1987 called the 8we
15:41
cholesterol cure highlighted oats rich
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in soluble fiber but psyllium is also
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great in lowering cholesterol those
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soluble fibers actually bind to
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cholesterol in the gut and Usher them
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right out of the body so I can't recycle
15:56
I like to tell a story of one of my
15:58
pregnancies where I took celium for
16:00
constipation lots of celium at the end
16:03
of my pregnancy the cholesterol was
16:06
76 whoo too low baby was fine but I knew
16:11
before all the research that psyllium
16:13
was great for lowering carest
16:15
cholesterol and it's cheap it feeds the
16:18
good gut bacteria it absorbs sugar
16:21
toxins what do win supplements you want
16:24
to might want to know about because
16:27
these you know for hard Health the best
16:30
supplements are going to support
16:31
cardiovascular function reduce
16:33
inflammation improve circulation balance
16:36
cholesterol and blood pressure so here
16:38
are some of my top omega-3 I love
16:41
barlines and Nordic natural for
16:43
triglycerides and inflammation blood
16:46
pressure arhythmia CoQ10 now or Terry
16:50
naturally are two Brands I love love
16:53
that magnesium Tate Tau that's really
16:57
good for the heart rhythm
17:00
relaxing blood vessels good for blood
17:02
pressure vitamin
17:04
K2 helps keep that calcium out of the
17:07
arteries ELC carnitine good for energy
17:11
production ninas help dissolve blood
17:15
clots Hawthorne Berry strengthens the
17:17
heart contraction so you've got good
17:20
ejection fraction good old AG garlic I
17:24
love many brands or you can cook with it
17:27
good for so many things tor in berberine
17:30
for cholesterol insulin blood sugar
17:34
triglycerides anti-inflammatory
17:37
Resveratrol love that beetroot for
17:40
nitric oxide good for blood pressure and
17:42
of course my favorite curcumin very
17:45
naturally I love it lowers the
17:47
inflammation another thing we need to be
17:49
aware of of course is stress keeping
17:52
stress low a broken heart is a real
17:55
thing especially for women research
17:58
finds
17:59
toxins you need to avoid because they
18:01
cause inflammation allergens sleep
18:04
deprivation processed foods and I'm
18:07
going to list a sedentary lifestyle as a
18:10
toxin so thanks for listening to another
18:13
edition of today's nutrition I hope you
18:15
learn something that will help you or
18:17
someone you love as always you can
18:19
listen again on my website de.com or on
18:22
YouTube under Dr Deb Ford any place you
18:26
listen to podcasts have a great day and
18:29
keep keep your heart healthy and happy
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Statins
Deb Ford DCN RDN
16 views
Feb 28, 2025
18:33
The pharmaceutical establishment knows lifestyle is the key to reversing chronic disease- but there is no money in reversing it. But keeping it chronic so that people need the drugs, now that’s the ticket. Yes, diet and lifestyle works but you get 5 dollars for lifestyle research, but you can $150 million for drugs that have payback and this makes for inherent bias.