Pharmacist Suzy Cohen Shares Her Perspective on Cholesterol Lowering and Diabetic Medications

In this article, Suzy Cohen shares her perspective on cholesterol lowering and diabetic medications. Suzy Cohen has been a pharmacist for over 20 years. She's the author of "24-hour Pharmacist" and "Drug Muggers."

Kevin: Jan asks, "How do you convince, say your parents, who are on statins," her

parents are 82 years old she says, "and other drugs are not good and there are alternatives?" This is a big question too.

Suzy: Her parents are in their 80s. This is tough because they grew up with the mentality that the doctor is God complex, the doctor knows everything. So it's hard for the daughter to convince them, especially because they changed her diapers. What does she know? Right? I had to battle this with my own parents so I totally get this. I think the best way to approach them is gently and with black and white information. If you appeal to them emotionally you're not going to get anywhere. But if you appeal to them logically you may get somewhere. So maybe print out a study that is written in good language, or copy chapter four from my book, "Straight from the Heart," where I talk about why cholesterol drugs can hasten your death. Why they can increase your risk of heart attack. And they can. Studies are now showing that statin drugs can increase your risk for cancer. These are studies that are out there. You can find these by Googling on the Internet.

Print that and show them and say, "I love you but I've got to tell you I just saw this article written by America's Pharmacist," or written by doctor so-and-so. "I love you and I'm concerned that you're not going in a good direction with these medications because they can damage your liver, they can cause you to lose your memory, they can cause leg cramps and fatigue. Is any of this happening to you?" If the answer is yes then hand them the article and say, "I know why. It's because these medications are lowering your cholesterol so much that they're also lowering a heart-healthy nutrient. It's not a good thing."

A lot of people can be sustained and lower cholesterol naturally with things as simple as omega-3 fish oils. It's very powerful. Co-enzyme Q10, this is very powerful. A lot of people use red yeast rice as well or polycosenol. You can also use things like gugulipid. There's so many natural things.

Eating a high-fiber diet and cutting out meat is also important. Personally, I don't think we need to just lower cholesterol to the numbers that they are suggesting to us right now. They want us to lower it so, so much because that way they can get as many people as possible on a statin drug. It's just gotten crazy. How low do we need to go?

You don't feel well with low cholesterol. You need cholesterol to feel well. If they can convince the American public that it needs to go below this number, below 200 total cholesterol or below 100 LDL, or whatever, then they can get eight year olds on statin drugs, beat that.

Kevin: Wow. So you're saying that as they're lowering the cholesterol people are staying on statin drugs.

Suzy: Yeah. They're getting more and more people on them. Here's the thing, lowering

cholesterol in someone with heart disease is like blowing the smoke out of a house that's on fire. It doesn't matter. You've got to stop the fire. You've got to blow the fire out. The fact that someone's cholesterol is high is just basically telling you that their arteries, their veins, their capillaries, are cracked. There's these microscopic lesions on them. The cholesterol goes there to patch it up. So if you have high cholesterol you've find that your arteries aren't flexible any more. It's a red flag. It's something that you should go, "Uh-oh, I need to eat differently. I need to unclog my arteries." Something like nattokinese would be helpful as well, blood thinner, very helpful for unclogging arteries, in my opinion. Those statements have not been approved by the FDA. [Laughs] My qualifying statement.

Kevin: I think it's true, you have to.

Suzy: Yeah, but here's the thing. I don't care what somebody's cholesterol is so much as I care what their LPA is. It's another blood test. But you're not going to hear about measuring your LPA because there isn't a drug to lower it, there is only vitamins and amino acids and nutrients that lower it. So you're not going to hear about LPA. But that's a blood test that can measure how much gunky-junk is stuck in your arteries. It's a far better predictor than measuring cholesterol. Measuring cholesterol is useless as far as I'm concerned. Again, it's a red flag. It's just saying your arteries need attention, that there's a lot of cholesterol being made in order to rush to the site where there's all these microscopic little cracks in the arteries.

Kevin: Can someone ask a doctor to get their LPA?

Suzy: Yes. If you want to know how well your heart and your circulation is doing, then there are tests that you need to ask your doctor for. You need to insist on these. One of them is measuring your LPA. Another one is high sensitivity C-reactive protein -- that's different than a regular C-reactive protein. You want a high sensitivity one.

Kevin: What's the difference?

Suzy: This measures inflammation. Another thing you want to ask for is testing your fibrinogen level, and others. Again, that's because I don't really care so much what your cholesterol levels are. Do you know why? Because I don't make any money or profit from the sale of statin drugs so it doesn't matter to me what the cholesterol is. The people who care a lot about it are the ones who are making the drugs to lower it. They want that measured and they want that number down.

Kevin: It's just singular. I think that's one of the biggest challenges. There's never a holistic approach when it comes to these medications.

Suzy: Well, some of the better doctors are talking about holistic approaches. I'm making some headway. I've been doing this for 11 years and I'm like a gnat in the press. The doctors were just scratching their heads trying to figure me out at first, this was eleven years ago going, "Who is she and why is she saying this?" Now I'm a trusted resource for them. They buy my books. They want to know more. They ask me questions about their patients and email and we correspond. I have doc friends all over the world. The smartest ones are the ones who already know this or if they don't they're willing to listen. You'd be surprised. Again, doctors care about their patients. They want them to do better. They're not all just trying to get through the day harrowed and hurry up. A lot of them really, really care. They just don't know. They believe what they read. They believe what they hear at their educational seminars. It's almost like they're indoctrinated. They don't realize that the medication they're prescribing can be harmful

to some of their patients. They're not right for everybody.

Look at Avandia. Avandia is a popular drug that controls blood sugar, a blockbuster diabetic medicine. It's been out for several years. What they found out about it is -- it's been under fire before -- but in May of 2008 a study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found more dangers, particularly heart problems, so blatantly obvious that the FDA forced the makers of Avandia to post a black-box warning. It doesn't get any worse than a black-box warning, except if they pull the drug and take it off the market. Here's the part where I fell out of my chair. The scientists ultimately concluded even after the studies about heart problems, they even concluded that it was inconclusive as to whether this drug contributed to these deaths. Are you kidding me?

I'm not a brain surgeon but Avandia is a drug mugger for many B vitamins like folate and B12, and co-Q10. We've already been talking long enough for you to realize that when you run out of your B vitamins and co-Q10, your muscles suffer. Your heart is the hardest working muscle of all. Your heart suffers. Is it any surprise to anybody that a drug mugger of co-Q10 and B vitamins is going to cause heart trouble? Duh.

People who have my book or who have been reading my columns do this. They know that diabetic medicines deplete the body of B12 , a lot of the Bs and also co-Q10. They supplement with those. So they get to enjoy the effects of their medication, if they need it, plus they have a much lower risk of heart disease, heart attack, heart failure and also cancer.

Kevin Gianni the host of renegadehealth.com Renegade Health Show - a fun and informative daily health show that is changing the perception of health across the world. His is an internationally known health advocate, author, and film consultant. He has helped thousands and thousands of people in over 21 countries though online health teleseminars about renegadehealth.com/inner-circle.php abundance, optimum health and longevity. He is also the creator and co-author of "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution."