The Trouble With Statins

Statins are a class of drugs used to treat hypercholesterolemia—high cholesterol.

A good example of the failure of drugs to effectively and safely treat a serious medical condition is statins. Statins are a class of drugs used to treat hypercholesterolemia—high cholesterol. As of 2008, statins were the best‐selling prescription drugs in the world, with $20 billion sold per year in the United States alone. Although many studies show that statins provide primary prevention, the long‐term tolerability of these drugs is highly questionable. Statins can reduce total cholesterol in the blood and thus help decrease the incidence of coronary heart disease, but the use of statins is also associated with muscle pain and weakness, dizziness, cognitive impairment, peripheral neuropathy, and an increased risk of noncardiovascular death.

For example, when we review the results of major primary prevention trials, we find that the 15 percent decrease in deaths from heart disease in patients who were using cholesterol‐lowering drugs (CLD) is offset by increases in deaths from other conditions. One area of concern is cancer: Two popular classes of CLDs—fibrates and statins—cause cancer and liver damage in rodents. A significant increase in cancer incidence, especially gastrointestinal cancer, has been seen in people who take CLDs. Use of CLDs also increases cancer at the expense of decreasing deaths from cardiovascular conditions, especially among the elderly and people who are being treated with immunotherapy for cancer. There is also evidence of a relationship between cancer and statin dosing. Yet another area of concern is stroke. Low or reduced levels of serum cholesterol have been shown to increase the risk of death from hemorrhagic stroke.

Impact of Drugs on Hormones

Although we have not yet fully explained the major role hormones play in restorative medicine, here we want to point out the potentially devastating impact the use of drugs can have on hormone levels and balance in the human body. Studies show that cholesterol‐lowering drugs, for example, can cause hormone level abnormalities. Some research indicates that statin use disturbs testosterone levels, while specific drugs seem to target certain hormones. The statin, mevastatin, for example, can significantly decrease the production  of progesterone and testosterone, while clofibrate has a similar effect on testosterone and cortisol.

At an even more basic level, the use of synthetic hormones, rather than bioidentical hormones, can disrupt the body’s natural hormone balance. The human body contains all the elements it needs to process natural hormones when they occur in their natural proportions. When you introduce synthetic hormones, the human body does not metabolize them in the same way it does bioidentical hormones. That’s because synthetic hormones are not hormones; like drugs, they are foreign substances.

The Trouble with Cholesterol‐Lowering Drugs

  • The range of side effects caused by CLDs ranges from 4 to 38 percent in many studies, but has been seen to rise as high as nearly 75 percent in some trials (especially for cerivastatin and pravastatin).
  • Most patients who begin cholesterol‐lowering therapy stop it within one year: studies show 60 percent of patients discontinued their medication over 12 months, and only about 33 percent of patients ever reach their treatment goals.
  • The most common side effects of CLDs are abdominal pain, chest pain, dizziness, asthenia/fatigue, fibromyalgia, headache, insomnia, elevated transaminase levels in the liver, upper respiratory tract infection; also eczema, rashes, cramps, exercise intolerance, severe rhabdomyolysis, renal failure, and poor quality of life.
  • Statins deplete coenzyme Q10, a substance that is important for heart health. Supplementation with CoQ10 should be pursued to offset the dangers of statin drugs to the heart.
  • Statins may impair heart pumping function due to their myopathic effects.
  • Other conditions that may occur as a result of taking statins include erectile dysfunction, dementia, memory loss, severe irritability, peripheral neuropathy, restlessness, lupus‐like syndrome, pleurisy, arthralgia, tachyphylaxis, and mental confusion.

Get your FREE e-Book today, Dr. Dzugan’s “Your Blood Doesn’t Lie” and learn more about our program and how it can help you.

Because every person’s body chemistry is different, we work closely with you to develop a personalized program that improves your overall Quality of Life.

Scroll to the bottom of the Dzugan PhysioLogic home page and grab your free ebook, a free consultation with one of our Doctors, or just give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 Option 2 today to speak with an experienced advisor.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.

What is the Primary Cause of Disease?

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series What is DzLogic?

The main goal of our Restorative Medicine Program is to bring a person’s hormone levels back to what is optimal for each individual at age 25 to 30.

What is restorative medicine?

It is the restoration of optimal physiology. It is a whole‐body concept because it affects every organ system, from our head to our toes. Restorative Medicine logically forces a new principle: that many diseases are the result of an imbalance of body chemistry, and once we restore balance and physiology we can correct the cause of the majority of diseases. This is the new message that must be heard, and will be heard because it is logical, it is rooted in science, and it is based on clinical results.

The concepts of Restorative Medicine in this book are based on the lifetime work of Sergey A. Dzugan, MD, PhD, who has fine tuned this concept and identified specific essential hormones and nutrients that need to be brought back into equilibrium or balanced to achieve optimal health, and a body able to fight disease. Using our Restorative Medicine Program, clinicians and patients can enter a brave new world in healing and will be able to effectively prevent or treat diseases and syndromes that result from imbalances, such as atherosclerosis, arthritis, migraine, fibromyalgia, menopause, depression, erectile dysfunction, and many others.

What Causes Disease?

To better understand what Restorative Medicine is all about, let’s first consider some basic concepts. One is, What causes disease? Once you know what causes a disease or disorder, you have a more solid foundation upon which to find ways to prevent and treat it. Disease can be caused by one of four factors:

  • Genetics/Congenital: Conditions such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, Down’s syndrome, congenital heart disease, and sickle cell have clear genetic or congenital causes. In addition, many diseases also have a genetic component, meaning that genetics plays a role in the development of the condition, but it is a risk factor, and not the primary cause. That is, you can inherit a tendency to develop a certain disease.
  • Infections: Diseases clearly caused by an infectious organism, which include viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. Some examples include pneumonia, meningitis, colds/flu, urinary tract infections, bone infections, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.
  • Trauma: A fall, automobile accident, or other physical trauma can cause brain hemorrhage, post‐traumatic epilepsy, and brain injuries.
  • Acquired physiologic errors: The majority of people who have disease have one or more that has been caused by acquired physiologic errors, or imbalances. Conditions such as heart disease, cancer, depression, arthritis, fibromyalgia, migraine, fatigue, ulcerative colitis, atherosclerosis, and many others fall into this category. This is the category of disease addressed by the Restorative Medicine approach.

Restorative Medicine treats the errors of physiology by restoring the body’s hormones and nutrients to optimal levels. Normally, the body strives to keep a healthy ratio between different hormones. For example, some of the hormones that work together and for which we have identified an optimal ratio are DHEA and cortisol, and estrogen and progesterone. When hormone levels and ratios are not balanced, there is a breakdown in bodily functions.

Although we talk about hormones in much detail in Chapter 3, here we just want to say that critical hormones such as DHEA, pregnenolone, testosterone, and others begin to decline around age 35. Perhaps the most important thing that happens when hormone levels begin to decline is that the body tries to correct the problem by increasing production of cholesterol. To help prevent or correct this response and others launched by the body when hormone levels fall, the main goal of our Restorative Medicine Program is to bring a person’s hormone levels back to what is optimal for each individual at age 25 to 30.

Stop feeling sluggish, achy and out of sync, call us today! 1-866-225-4877, option 2. 

Get your FREE e-Book today, Dr. Dzugan’s “Your Blood Doesn’t Lie” and learn more about our program and how it can help you.

Because every person’s body chemistry is different, we work closely with you to develop a personalized program that improves your overall Quality of Life.

Scroll to the bottom of the Dzugan PhysioLogic home page and grab your free ebook, a free consultation with one of our Doctors, or just give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 Option 2 today to speak with an experienced advisor.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.

Your Body and Cholesterol – Why You Need it to Survive

Cholesterol is a most vital element in the body. 

Recall that cholesterol is a most vital element in the body. It is the great progenitor, builder of cells and creator of hormones. Obviously, building cells and creating hormones can be considered a pretty good thing for the body, what with that being a necessary component of being defined as alive versus dead. Through long chains of conversions, cholesterol is ultimately responsible for creating more or less that which makes us run properly.

Going back to the issues of cause and effect, we believe that by this rather simple reasoning (and with observational data) a hypothesis can be established regarding hypercholesterolemia. In our hormone deficit hypothesis of hypercholesterolemia, we state that hypercholesterolemia is the reactive consequence of enzyme-dependent down regulation (whenever a cell creates less of a certain component) of steroid hormone creation and their interconversion.1 Simply put, the cholesterol level increases as a compensatory mechanism for the decreased production of steroid hormones. That is certainly a mouthful, but we can break it down quite easily.

Cholesterol creates hormones. What happens when hormone levels decrease, whether naturally via age or through other means? The said compensatory mechanism kicks in and the agent which is responsible for the formation of new hormones is created in greater numbers. Hormones fall, cholesterol production is increased to greater numbers to try and restore the balance. However, this is when the problem arises. The compensatory mechanism is unfortunately trying to fix the wrong thing. The compensatory mechanism has the right idea but is not working on fixing the actual problem. If increased cholesterol requirement to create more steroid hormones was the problem, then this would fix hormone levels. Unfortunately it does not, and steroid hormone levels remain low. Extra cholesterol production does not fix the malfunctioning enzymes.
The body can keep throwing cholesterol at the decreased hormone levels all day, but it is attempting to fix the problem with the wrong means. There isn’t some magical point where suddenly cholesterol becomes less effective. Consider that an optimally balanced body has an optimum level of cholesterol and an optimum level of hormones, for the body in question (this is important, because the human body is not a statistical variable and everyone is unique). If the problem arose from an increased need of cholesterol, then logically the increased level of cholesterol would in turn raise hormones to an optimal level. This is not the case.

Cholesterol increases, but hormone levels stay low. The underlying fault working, or not working in this case, is the enzymes that are responsible for the myriad of interconversions through which cholesterol turns into hormones (which are converted into other hormones, also via enzymes). The building supplies are increased, but the problem is not a lack of supplies but instead the construction workers not putting the building supplies in their place via proper application. As a consequence, the body keeps the level of cholesterol elevated accordingly. In this sense, cholesterol takes on more than ever the function of a biological marker. The elevated level shows that the production of hormones is not optimized according to the needs of the body in regards to hormones.

From our point of view, in such a situation the most optimal steps to take would lead to the restoration of normal enzyme function, such as the enzyme that converts cholesterol into pregnenolone or the various enzymes that control other hormonal interconversions. In the case of an enzyme deficiency, they can be simply replaced or restored. This will allow for the restoration of normal physiological pathways instead of their suppression. We think that drug companies should focus on such an approach instead of trying to disrupt the body’s normal physiology.
While speaking of cholesterol disorders, we can look at hypocholesterolemia. The work flow, so to speak, is reversed in this situation. While hypercholesterolemia is caused by low steroid hormone production, hypocholesterolemia causes low steroid hormone production. The hyper version sees a situation where the building blocks start to pile up because there is not enough builders to route them as needed, while the hypo version is a situation where there aren’t enough building blocks in the first place.

In other words, there are many paths to a malfunctioning system. A very easy example would be a statin drug, which interferes with HMG-CoA reductase, which has the overall effect of disrupting cholesterol production. Thus, the level of hormones decreases due to the lower level of cholesterol. This happens because there is less of what we can describe as the steroid hormone building block to go around.

One could argue, however, that this is an artificially created impediment to the regular function of the system. If someone were to shoot you in the arm, then the movement of that arm will be impaired. Your arm now suffers a handicap that was not there initially due to this outside force. How does this take into account individuals who naturally have lower levels of cholesterol? Once again, the uniqueness of each human being must be pointed out. Many malfunctions can occur in the long pathway of conversion before cholesterol is even formed.

Cholesterol is not simply created as a whole particle and let loose upon the body. Bits and pieces join together and convert into other parts with the help of various agents. All it takes is just one of those steps or parts not working to their full potential to cause a cascading chain reaction of impaired production. 

To learn more about cholesterol and the effect it has on your body, purchase Dr. Dzugan’s book “The Magic of Cholesterol Numbers” on Amazon.

Get your FREE e-Book today, Dr. Dzugan’s “Your Blood Doesn’t Lie” and learn more about our program and how it can help you.

Because every person’s body chemistry is different, we work closely with you to develop a personalized program that improves your overall Quality of Life.

Scroll to the bottom of the Dzugan PhysioLogic home page and grab your free ebook, a free consultation with one of our Doctors, or just give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 Option 2 today to speak with an experienced advisor.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.

Side Effects of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs

The most common side effects of CLD include chest pain, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, fibromyalgia, headaches, insomnia, and upper respiratory tract infections.

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Dzugan’s book “The Magic of Cholesterol Numbers” and goes into detail about how cholesterol-lowering drugs (or CLDs) can change your quality of life: 

Where do cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLD) come into the picture? After all, these drugs are the things that all the fear against cholesterol is leveraged for. Do they directly work to fix the issue which causes the rise in cholesterol? Or perhaps by lowering cholesterol they enable a mechanism to go into action to restore cholesterol to previous normal levels, which by extension fixes the issue that was associated with the abnormal level of cholesterol in the first place? Such an effect from these agents certainly would be wonderful. It would be wonderful if this is also what actually happened.

Delving into the world of CLDs, it quickly becomes apparent that there is no single CLD, but instead we find out that CLD is a blanket term for several types of agents.

Statins, which are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, are perhaps the more famous ones if by fame we can refer to a beastly income coupled with a large advertising budget. Statins also pack the greatest punch, as they affect the basic mechanisms of cholesterol synthesis in a major way. They actually cut off cholesterol before it can be made.

The most common side effects of CLD include chest pain, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, fibromyalgia, headaches, insomnia, and upper respiratory tract infections. Statins and fibrates may cause erectile dysfunction. This one, in particular, is important, and not just for the men. Earlier we noted studies where high cholesterol was present in men with erectile dysfunction. If high cholesterol was the actual cause of this issue, wouldn’t it stand to reason that a lowered level of cholesterol would help with this instead of being a cause of it? Adverse events from CLD include reduced quality of life, eczema, skin rashes, severe rhabdomyolysis (the breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue), renal failure, and death.

To read more about the world of Cholesterol numbers, get Dr. Dzugan’s book “The Magic of Cholesterol Numbers.”

Get your FREE e-Book today, Dr. Dzugan’s “Your Blood Doesn’t Lie” and learn more about our program and how it can help you.

Because every person’s body chemistry is different, we work closely with you to develop a personalized program that improves your overall Quality of Life.

Scroll to the bottom of the Dzugan PhysioLogic home page and grab your free ebook, a free consultation with one of our Doctors, or just give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 Option 2 today to speak with an experienced advisor.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.