It plays a role in ATP production in the cells and functions as an electron carrier to cytochrome oxidase, our main respiratory enzyme. Ubiquinone or Co-Enzyme Q10 is a critical cellular nutrient biosynthesized in the mitochondria. The two others are ubiquinone and dolichol. The child represents an extreme example of cholesterol inhibition, but his case illuminates the possible consequences of taking statins in strong doses or for a lengthy period of time–depression of mental acuity, anemia, acidosis, frequent fevers and cataracts.Ĭholesterol is one of three end products in the mevalonate chain. Predictably, his cholesterol was consistently low–70-79 mg/dl. 1 The child was mentally retarded, microcephalic (very small head), small for his age, profoundly anemic, acidotic and febrile. Herein lies one potential for numerous side effects, because statin drugs inhibit not just the production of cholesterol, but a whole family of intermediary substances, many if not all of which have important biochemical functions in their own right.Ĭonsider the findings of pediatricians at the University of California, San Diego who published a description of a child with an hereditary defect of mevalonic kinase, the enzyme that facilitates the next step beyond HMG-CoA reductase. Statin drugs work by inhibiting this enzyme–hence the formal name of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. The step from HMG to mevalonate requires an enzyme, HMG-CoA reductase. The process begins with acetyl-CoA, a two-carbon molecule sometimes referred to as the “building block of life.” Three acetyl-CoA molecules combine to form six-carbon hydroxymethyl glutaric acid (HMG). The diagram below illustrates the pathways involved in cholesterol production. The drugs that doctors use to treat the new disease are called statins–sold under a variety of names including Lipitor (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin) and Pravachol (pravastatin). Current dogma stipulates cholesterol testing and treatment for young adults and even children. But why wait until you have a heart attack? Since we all labor under the stigma of original sin, we are all candidates for treatment. The penance is a lifetime of cholesterol-lowering medications along with a boring lowfat diet. If you have suffered from a heart attack, you get to take cholesterol-lowering medicines even if your cholesterol is already very low–after all, you have committed the sin of having a heart attack so your cholesterol must therefore be too high. Recently that number has been moved down to 180. After the Cholesterol Consensus Conference in 1984, the parameters changed anyone (male or female) with cholesterol over 200 could receive the dreaded diagnosis and a prescription for pills. Who suffers from hypercholesterolemia? Peruse the medical literature of 25 or 30 years ago and you’ll get the following answer: any middle-aged man whose cholesterol is over 240 with other risk factors, such as smoking or overweight. But such doctors do not work in a vacuum–their efforts to convert healthy people into patients are bolstered by the full weight of the US government, the media and the medical establishment, agencies that have worked in concert to disseminate the cholesterol dogma and convince the population that high cholesterol is the forerunner of heart disease and possibly other diseases as well. Many people who feel perfectly healthy suffer from high cholesterol–in fact, feeling good is actually a symptom of high cholesterol!ĭoctors who treat this new disease must first convince their patients that they are sick and need to take one or more expensive drugs for the rest of their lives, drugs that require regular checkups and blood tests. High cholesterol exhibits no outward signs–unlike other conditions of the blood, such as diabetes or anemia, diseases that manifest telltale symptoms like thirst or weakness–hypercholesterolemia requires the services of a physician to detect its presence. It is actually an invented disease, a “problem” that emerged when health professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood. Hypercholesterolemia is the health issue of the 21st century. Nourishing Traditional Diets with Sally Fallon Morell.
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