The human body produces oils and other substances that circulate in the bloodstream. An example of a substance that the body produces naturally is cholesterol. This is ingested in the food we eat. Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in your blood. Your body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells, but high levels of cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease.

There are two types of cholesterol namely LDL and HDL.

LDL is better known as bad cholesterol. The reason why it is bad is because too much of this in the system may put the person at risk of suffering from either a heart attack or a stroke.

HDL in simple terms is good cholesterol because its job is to regulate the flow the bad one so this can be filtered out of the person’s system. There must be a balanced between the two so the individual is healthy.

Whenever people get a blood test, the patient will see a breakdown of the LDL and HDL in the system. Though not that significant as the first two, doctors pay attention to two other figures namely the total cholesterol and the triglyceride level. In order to be given a clean bill of health, the patient must stay within a certain range. Those who have less than 200mg/dl in total cholesterol are safe. The same goes for someone who has less than 150mg/dl in the triglycerides.

So what happens if the person goes beyond the limit? We are told the individual is at risk of developing high blood pressure or a heart disease. With high cholesterol, you can develop fatty deposits in your blood vessels. Eventually, these deposits grow, making it difficult for enough blood to flow through your arteries. Sometimes, those deposits can break suddenly and form a clot that causes a heart attack or stroke. The good news is that the person can still prevent such a thing from happening.

There are four simple ways to do it and this must be done gradually before something bad really happens.

The first is to change the diet. This means eating less of those that are high in saturated fats such as red meat and dairy products. This should be changed for fish, fruits, nuts, oatmeal and vegetables.  Studies have shown that those who eat oatmeal regularly are able to reduce the LDL and trigylecerides level in just 2 weeks. Imagine what could happen if this is done even after just a month?

The second is exercise. The body has stored fat after how many years of not engaging in any physical activity. Changing the eating habits can only go so far and sweating it out will increase the metabolic rate thus helping reduce the patient’s cholesterol levels.

The third is for the individual to take drugs to aid in the reduction of cholesterol. Examples of these are bile acid resins, ezetimibe, fibric acid, niacin and statins. These are available in different brands and studies have indicated they can lower the cholesterol from 15% to 30% when taken regularly.

Statin Drugs

Statins are drugs that can lower your cholesterol. They work by blocking a substance your body needs to make cholesterol.

According to an article on WebMD, studies have shown that taking statins can lower those risks in large groups of people, but the impact on a person’s individual risk is much smaller. John Mandrola, MD, a cardiologist in Louisville, K.Y. says, “If there is a benefit, it’s a small benefit. And I just think most patients don’t really understand. They get told their cholesterol is high and ‘You should take this drug,’”.   After doing his own review of the research, Mandrola concluded that for lower-risk patients, statins raise the risk of diabetes in about the same number of people who might avoid a first heart attack or stroke on the drugs. And they don’t lower a person’s overall risk of an early death.

Allopathic doctors (that’s most of the MD’s today) will tell you research has shown that statins are highly effective in reducing the risk of fatal heart attack and stroke. According to the Mayo Clinic, the most important thing your doctor will keep in mind when thinking about statin treatment is your long-term risk of a heart attack or stroke. If your risk is very low, you probably won’t need a statin, unless your LDL is above 190 mg/dL (4.92 mmol/L).  If you’ve already experienced a cardiovascular event, statins are a mainstay of long-term preventive therapy to reduce the chance it will happen again.

Risk?  Folks, if risk is your guideline, you better quarantine yourself away in some secluded place because risk is a fact of life. Everything you do has a risk.  Your every activity carries with it a risk.  The food you eat, the water you drink, and the air you breathe all contain risk. You name it… it has risk.  The fear created by risk is what makes $Billions for the pharmaceutical industry.  They’ve got a pill for just about every risk.

Statins have been referred to as the “gold standard” for treating high levels of harmful cholesterol, or LDL (low density lipoprotein), and are one of the most widely used drugs in the world. First dispensed in 1987, they are used daily by more than 200 million people worldwide. Globally, about 33% of coronary heart disease cases can be attributed to high cholesterol. With the popularity of prescribing these drugs and their claim of being safe and effective, one has to wonder why then aren’t the death rates from heart disease significantly decreasing?

Should exercise and dieting not work, the patient must remember that the intake of these drugs has certain side effects. The doctor should explain this before even prescribing this so the individual can choose from the wide range of drugs that can be used to lower one’s cholesterol.

Some of the more-serious side effects of taking statins include:

• Increased blood sugar or type 2 diabetes.
• Muscle cell damage.
• Liver damage.
• Memory problems. I would like to see research in how the rise of statin use coincides with the rise of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Prevention is the best way to combat any disease.

A healthy diet, regular exercise, and a clean lifestyle will keep you away from  the doctor’s office and will surely save money instead of being addicted to “risk” reduction drugs and endless medical procedures.

I recommend you take charge of your life and take back control from the medical industrial complex that’s draining your wealth and is perhaps the leading cause of death. The total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.