A Statin Free Life

'Giving you all the facts to help you decide how best to have a healthy life. - Dr Phil Hammond Statins are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. Yet many report unacceptable side effects and a US survey revealed that 75 per cent of respondents stopped taking them within a year. So what is the evidence for their benefits? Dr Aseem Malhotra, author of the bestselling The 21-Day Immunity Plan and co-author of the bestselling The Pioppi Diet, examines the claims for statins and their role in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease. He introduces us to his targeted heart-health plan, which, with a diet plan, recipes and advice on reducing stress and increasing movement, can help us to live statin-free and take control of our own health. 'Backed by science, this is a riveting read for anyone with a heart.' - Liz Earle 'Aseem's programme gives you the best opportunity for a v long and healthy life.' - Ross Walker 'Get this book to figure out if a statin-free life is right for you.' - Dr Robert Lustig

Heart disease is the #1 killer. However, traditional heart disease protocols--with their emphasis on lowering cholesterol--have it all wrong. Emerging science is showing that cholesterol levels are a poor predictor of heart disease and that standard prescriptions for lowering it, such as ineffective low-fat/high-carb diets and serious, side-effect-causing statin drugs, obscure the real causes of heart disease. Even doctors at leading institutions have been misled for years based on creative reporting of research results from pharmaceutical companies intent on supporting the $31-billion-a-year cholesterol-lowering drug industry. The Great Cholesterol Myth reveals the real culprits of heart disease, including: - Inflammation - Fibrinogen - Triglycerides - Homocysteine - Belly fat - Triglyceride to HCL ratios - High glycemic levels Bestselling health authors Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., and Stephen Sinatra, M.D. give readers a 4-part strategy based on the latest studies and clinical findings for effectively preventing, managing, and reversing heart disease, focusing on diet, exercise, supplements, and stress and anger management. Get proven, evidence-based strategies from the experts with The Great Cholesterol Myth. MYTHS VS. FACTS Myth–High cholesterol is the cause of heart disease. Fact–Cholesterol is only a minor player in the cascade of inflammation which is a cause of heart disease. Myth–High cholesterol is a predictor of heart attack. Fact–There is no correlation between cholesterol and heart attack. Myth–Lowering cholesterol with statin drugs will prolong your life. Fact–There is no data to show that statins have a significant impact on longevity. Myth–Statin drugs are safe. Fact–Statin drugs can be extremely toxic including causing death. Myth–Statin drugs are useful in men, women and the elderly. Fact–Statin drugs do the best job in middle-aged men with coronary disease. Myth–Statin drugs are useful in middle-aged men with coronary artery disease because of its impact on cholesterol. Fact–Statin drugs reduce inflammation and improve blood viscosity (thinning blood). Statins are extremely helpful in men with low HDL and coronary artery disease. Myth–Saturated fat is dangerous. Fact–Saturated fats are not dangerous. The killer fats are the transfats from partially hydrogenated oils. Myth–The higher the cholesterol, the shorter the lifespan. Fact–Higher cholesterol protects you from gastrointestinal disease, pulmonary disease and hemorrhagic stroke. Myth–A high carbohydrate diet protects you from heart disease. Fact–Simple processed carbs and sugars predispose you to heart disease. Myth–Fat is bad for your health. Fact–Monounsaturated and saturated fats protect you from metabolic syndrome. Sugar is the foe in cardiovascular disease. Myth–There is good (HDL) cholesterol and bad (LDL) cholesterol. Fact–This is over-simplistic. You must fractionate LDL and HDL to assess the components. Myth–Cholesterol causes heart disease. Fact–Cholesterol is only a theory in heart disease and only the small component of LP(a) or “bb shot” LDL predisposes one to oxidation and inflammation.

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 'Brilliant! It's hard to change your life - but this book gives you all the reasons it's possible. From the first page to the last, one revelation after another.' JEREMY VINE 'Brilliant . . . especially required reading in these COVID-19 days' LIZ EARLE 'Metabolism, inflammation, and immunity are three sides of the same coin. Fix one and you fix them all. Dr Aseem Malhotra offers you a way to fix all three at once, and the solution is as easy as your fork.' PROFESSOR ROBERT LUSTIG, bestselling author of Fat Chance 'This remarkable book will change your life. Beautifully written, it compiles in one place the health messages we all know make sense. PROFESSOR KAROL SIKORA, leading cancer specialist and Founding Dean, University of Buckingham Medical School 'Read this book and follow the plan, it may save your life.' GURINDER CHADHA, OBE, director of Bend It Like Beckham 'A crystal-clear roadmap to reverse the roots causes of our poor metabolic and immune health. It is the handbook of health for our time.' MARK HYMAN, New York Times bestselling author of Food Fix ******* The simple, evidence-based diet plan to rapidly improve your metabolic health, help with normal immune function and likely reduce the risk of severe effects from Covid-19. Dr Aseem Malhotra is a leading NHS-trained cardiologist and a pioneer of lifestyle medicine. He has been at the forefront of citing the health conditions which make us vulnerable to the worst effects of Covid-19. Obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease are high among them - and all indicators of poor metabolic health. The good news is that in just 21 days we can prevent, improve and even potentially reverse many of the underlying risk factors that exacerbate how infections, including Covid-19, affect us and improve our ability to recover from them. Giving us the evidence-based science behind the plan, Dr Malhotra shares how simple changes to our diet as well as daily exercise and stress relief can have remarkable results in improving our markers for metabolic health, even helping to put Type 2 diabetes into remission, reduce risk factors for heart disease, decrease weight and enhance vitality. Arguing for the huge benefits to global health of these highly effective lifestyle changes, he shows how just 21 days can help us to start the journey to lead a healthier and longer life.

Discusses the uses, misuses, dangers, and benefits of statin drugs, counseling patients on how to make informed choices about side effects and lifestyle changes that can promote cardiovascular health.

Statins are widely prescribed to lower blood cholesterol levels and claim to offer unparalleled protection against heart disease. Believed to be completely safe and capable of preventing a whole series of other conditions, they are the most profitable drug in the history of medicine. In this groundbreaking book, GP Malcolm Kendrick exposes the truth behind the hype. He will change the way we think about cholesterol forever. Rubbishing the diet-heart hypothesis, in which clinical trials 'prove' that high cholesterol causes heart disease and a high-fat diet leads to heart disease, Kendrick lambastes a powerful pharmaceutical industry and unquestioning medical profession, who, he claims, perpetuate the madcap concepts of 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol and cholesterol levels to convince millions of people to unnecessarily spend billions of pounds on statins. Clearly and comprehensively debunking assumptions on what constitute a healthy lifestyle and diet, "The Great Cholesterol Con" is the accessible, indispensable and absorbing case against statins and for a more common-sense approach to heart disease and general wellbeing. No more over-hyped miracle drugs; no more garlic, red wine, anti-oxidants, fruit or vegetables; even a vegetarian diet is rejected in this controversial yet authoritative critique of how we have been mislead over how food and drugs affect our coronary health. Here, for the first time, is the invaluable guide for anyone who though there was a miracle cure for heart disease, "The Great Cholesterol Con" is a fascinating breakthrough that will set dynamite under the whole area.

If you have been told that you must take statins or risk a devastating heart attack or stroke, you need to read this book. Dr Kendrick, a well-known statin sceptic and author of the bestselling The Great Cholesterol Con, has returned to the diet-heart-cholesterol battlefield to warn that people are being conned. In relaxed and humorous style, he lifts the rock to allow the reader to peer underneath. He points out that statins, even in high-risk individuals, increase life expectancy by a mere four days after five years of treatment. Yet adverse effects have been swept under the carpet by researchers who are closely tied to the industry. The way to avoid heart disease, and strokes, is simple - but, as this riveting book shows, it has nothing to do with lowering cholesterol levels.

In this newly updated and re-edited 2012 edition, the side effects of cholesterol lowering statins are thoroughly assessed. Also reviewed are dietary and supplement choices that may offer benefit in the prevention of heart disease and in combating and preventing statin damage. The cholesterol lowering drugs known as statins are of proven benefit for some groups of people for the prevention of heart attacks and stroke, but statins also have a dark side. Tens of thousands of people have been victims of a huge array of statin drugs side effects, ranging from permanent cognitive dysfunction and severe personality change to disabilities from permanent peripheral neuropathy, permanent myopathy and chronic muscular degeneration. It has recently been reported that muscle pain cases frequently become permanent and many neurologists now regard statin neuropathy as predictably resistant to traditional treatment. When statins were first marketed there was seemingly no awareness of possible mitochondrial DNA effect or the importance of glial cell cholesterol to cognitive function and little or no concern that to inhibit cholesterol means to interrupt its pathway shared by both CoQ10 and dolichols and many other vital substances. Nor was it known that statins are powerful anti-inflammatory agents, the fundamental reason for their benefit in cardiovascular risk. The outmoded concept of looking at cholesterol numbers as a predictor of cardiovascular risk is increasingly being dismissed as studies point to cholesterol levels as being seemingly irrelevant to the process of atherosclerosis. In addition to the crisis of thousands of people disabled by statin associated neuro-muscular problems is the fact that many physicians still remain unaware that statins can even do this. Then there is the crisis of the growing trend of the insurance industry to use cholesterol levels as a reason to deny health care coverage or life insurance coverage. Some employers even require cholesterol levels to be below a certain number as a condition of employment. Plus the crisis of patients being forced into taking a statin because not to do so would result in having to find a new doctor. The Statin Damage Crisis looks at how statins work, the importance of cholesterol in the body, inflammation and atherosclerosis, anti-inflammatory alternatives to statins, serious side effects of statins, and dietary supplements of possible benefit to those taking statins or that were forced to stop taking a statin due to unpleasant and even disabling side effects.

Argues that low-cholesterol fat may actually help in the fight against heart disease and organizes detailed meal plans and recipes that prevent and reverse heart diesease.