Inflammation has a positive health function… for awhile
Inflammation is a required response by your body that springs your immune system into action.  This helps your body to call in nutrients and chemicals when tissues are damaged, and to whisk away toxic debris, dead tissues and waste. Without inflammation, a simple injury could leave an area of our body permanently disabled. After inflammation has played its essential role in managing the acute response, your body also needs the capacity to shut it off when it is not needed.

Chronic inflammation
Chronic inflammation is a state where many body tissues remain in a perpetual state of stress, which creates more damage and problems. Only our body’s innate intelligence can decide when it is appropriate to turn off, but we have to do our part by supplying the proper nutrients which allow it to do so.

In physiological terms, inflammation operates as a “positive feedback loop.”  What this means is that small inputs, in this case inflammation, creates instability that will grow exponentially and affect many areas of your body unless a signal tells it to stop. Sometimes when people suffer acute inflammation in the body, often they lack the nutrient “chemical intelligence” which directs your immune system to turn off this process when it is appropriate, which leads to chronic inflammation.  When inflammation is stuck in the “on” position due to missing nutrients, a state of “chronic” or “systemic” inflammation occurs.  Inflammation can be attributed to nearly every disease and injury in the body in varying degrees. Reducing inflammation can change the way your body feels.

Are Statin Medications A Good Way to Lower CRP?
The short answer is NO! Even though certain Statin medications have been shown to lower CRP values, they do not address the cause of inflammation, and allow inflammation to continue unnoticed in the body. As mentioned earlier, C- Reactive Protein, abbreviated “CRP,” is a protein that is produced by the liver as a response to high levels of inflammation in the body. Because “CRP” is made by the liver, we first must have a healthy liver in order to make adequate amounts of this protein.  If our liver is sick, then we will not make adequate amounts of this protein, even when we have high levels of inflammation in the body, and therefore may not even realize it.  

People who have diseases that affect the liver, or people with high liver enzymes, such as Hepatitis patients, people suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, patients on multiple drug therapies, and people taking Statin medications all have hindered liver function.  A Statin medication lowers cholesterol in the body by impairing the function of the liver, so it doesn’t produce cholesterol…this is how this drug works. When Statin’s impair our liver function, they essentially make our liver sick; it also cannot produce adequate amounts of CRP, even as inflammation levels rise in the body. Statins can give us a false sense of security that we have inflammation under control, when we really do not.

Identifying CRP (C- Reactive Protein) levels and lowering CRP levels naturally
In order to detect CRP levels, we use a Comprehensive Bioscreen blood panel, which is part of our general screening. We also use the Inflammation Panel developed by cardiologists at Cleveland Heart Lab, and this test is considered the premiere blood test when it comes to detecting heart disease or stroke.  We work with a blend of several nutrients to help reduce your CRP levels, addressing the cause of inflammation, which provides longer lasting results.

The Statin-Heart Disease connection came about when cholesterol was identified as an indicator of heart disease. The study responsible for this is the Framingham study, and was conducted during the 80’s. The outcome of this study then focused on a need to keep one’s cholesterol levels low as being a good indicator of heart health. The common ways this was addressed was by taking Statin medications, and to adopt a so called, “heart healthy low fat” diet. Without proper nutritional balance, many Americans adopted a high carbohydrate diet of refined foods and refined sugars, but “low fat.” This type of diet has contributed to the prevalence of heart related illnesses, diabetes and obesity.

For decades, organized healthcare has touted the effectiveness of Statin medications amidst the ever-growing prevalence of heart disease. Today, Statins are the most widely prescribed medications throughout America, with some estimated 32 million Americans taking Statin Medications today according to Harvard School of Medicine. http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/statin-use-is-up-cholesterol-levels-are-down-are-americans-hearts-benefiting-201104151518

What you should know about Statin Drugs:
1.The health risk calculator for cholesterol appears flawed
Leading Cardiologists admit that the cholesterol “over predicts” heart attack risk is “flawed”, and now Dr Peter Libby MD, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s hospital says they have a “real disaster in terms of credibility”, and “something is terribly wrong”. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/health/risk-calculator-for-cholesterol-appears-flawed.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines)

2.Statin drugs are good for lowering cholesterol, but not at reducing heart disease. According to Cardiologists at Cleveland Heart Lab, at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, 50% of all heart attacks and strokes occur in people who have normal to below average cholesterol. This indicates that high Cholesterol alone is a poor predictor of heart attacks and strokes.

3. A byproduct of taking Statins is that the liver becomes “more sick,” which contributes to a lowered level of health for you. In your liver, 80-90% of your cholesterol is made by your liver, versus dietary intake of cholesterol containing foods. The use of Statin medications serves to shut down the enzyme in the liver that produces cholesterol, which limits the amount of cholesterol produced. It does not heal the cause of why your body is producing more cholesterol than it should.

Other known issues with Statin drugs
4. Statin drugs cause neuropathy. Neuropathy refers to “nerve pain”. The outer coating of our nerve cells, called the Myelin sheath, is a cholesterol based fatty sheath. Statin drugs inhibit our ability to make this sheath, which leaves our neurons in a damaged, weakened, and irritated state; as a result we can experience pain. Neuropathy is a common side effect of Statins.

5. Statin drugs cause myopathy, which is the most common side effect. Myopathy is a term that means muscle pain. Your liver also processes and packages most of your body’s proteins, and proteins are needed to repair muscle. Statins disrupt protein synthesis, leaving your body unable to adequately repair muscle tissue. Interestingly, your heart is also a muscle, therefore places the Statin user at an even greater risk for heart troubles!

6. Statin drugs can cause elevated blood sugar levels.
The FDA now requires this risk to be labeled on all Statin medications. Erratic blood sugar contributes to a host of additional problems, including diabetes. One of the most common complications of diabetes is heart attack and stroke!

7. Statin drugs can cause memory loss.
The FDA has mandated this warning be added to the labels as well. Memory loss is a symptom of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury.

8. FACT: Cholesterol is needed by your body!
Cholesterol is used to make many of your hormones, to include your sex hormones. Taking Statins is a powerful and unintentional way of throwing your hormonal system into an unnatural state of disarray.

We require cholesterol in order to metabolize cholesterol!
Cholesterol makes up “bile salts” which are a component of bile. Bile is the mostly green fluid produced by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, which is used to emulsify, digest and remove cholesterol and other fatty acids. Statin drugs make it harder to make bile, and cholesterol, which in turn makes it harder for your body to metabolize cholesterol, in spite of seeing lower cholesterol values in the blood after taking Statins.

Not all cholesterol is the same
Oxidized cholesterol is the culprit of plaque, not the non-oxidized type of cholesterol tested in a standard lipid panel. Oxidized cholesterol has been transformed into a solid, which can now clog blood vessels. The non-oxidized form cannot. Oxidized cholesterol can be detected, and even lowered with proper care, but your doctor has to use the right test, and have a good protocol in place to create a favorable outcome. We use the Ox-LDL lab test developed by cardiologists at Cleveland Heart Lab.

Elevated cholesterol levels indicate a metabolic problem.
Elevated cholesterol indicates that we have a liver metabolism problem, not necessarily an impending heart disease problem. Usually when our liver starts to raise cholesterol levels in the body, it due to nutritional deficiencies, including: Vitamin C, many of the B vitamins, plant sterols, chromium, selenium, glutathione, copper, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, and enzymes.

Because our liver produces most of your body’s cholesterol in our body, when these levels elevate, this indicates that your liver is losing its ability to metabolize cholesterol. Tumeric and krill oil are two supplements among many that can be used to help your liver metabolize cholesterol, thereby lowering its levels.

Alternative healthcare protocols for heart disease
The real cause of heart disease is inflammation!
Inflammation is what damages and scars the inner lining of our blood vessels, which in turn allows oxidized solids, such as plaque, to deposit into these freshly cut scars. The byproducts of inflammation transform cholesterol into its oxidized, solid form. It’s the oxidized form of cholesterol that we need to be concerned about, but this is not what’s tested in your standard lipid panel. The standard lipid panel tests for the pre-oxidized form of cholesterol.

Identifying oxidized solid cholesterol in your body and determining heart attack risk
There is a test to detect oxidized solid cholesterol in the body, called Ox-LDL. This test measures the amounts of oxidized cholesterol in your body, which is the kind of cholesterol found in plaque. This test was developed by leading cardiologists at Cleveland Heart Lab. The other test looks at a very specific enzyme, called Myeloperoxidase, that is capable of detecting “vulnerable plaque.” Vulnerable plaque is plaque embedded in your blood vessel walls that is capable of clogging your circulation. It can be large enough to break away, float through your bloodstream and block a smaller blood vessel further downstream. These tests provide a more accurate method to detect heart disease, and is a part of a larger Inflammation Panel that we recommend to many of our patients.

Besides providing the capability of predicting these impending heart events, our protocol is designed to help your body reduce the inflammation that lowers the level of health, well-being, energy, and quality of life that we all deserve to have. We have a choice as to how we want to lower the inflammation and restore healthy cholesterol levels, and reduce these levels in a way that promotes health and well-being. Contact us today for more information on scheduling a consultation or taking the Cleveland Heart Lab test.