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Why I Would NEVER Take a Statin  image

Why I Would NEVER Take a Statin

How to Actually Live Longer
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How to Actually Live Longer is your go-to podcast for cutting through the noise and discovering practical, science-backed strategies to not just add years to your life, but to add life to your years. Hosted by longevity author and functional health practitioner Christian Yordanov, this podcast dives deep into the truths (and myths) behind longevity, health optimization, and addressing chronic health problems.

Each episode offers actionable insights drawn from the host's own research, clinical practice, and personal journey, helping you make informed decisions to restore and enhance your health. Whether you're interested in reducing stress, boosting your energy and mental performance, improving your gut health, or simply looking to optimize your diet and lifestyle, this podcast delivers the tools you need to live a healthier, longer life.

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Transcript

Introduction and Disclaimer

00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, Christian Yordnov here. Today, I want to talk to you about why I would never take a statin drug. This is not medical advice. Always follow the advice of your doctor and all that good stuff.

Critique of Pharmaceutical Industry

00:00:14
Speaker
i So i I jotted down a few points I wanted to discuss with my morning coffee. So I'm going to kind of brain dump them here. I'm going to try and keep it short. But if you're a regular listener, you understand that brevity is not my strong point.
00:00:34
Speaker
And I occasionally go on little rants here and there because I'm so passionate about some of these topics. But um to begin with, in for the companies that create these drugs are felons. They are criminals. They have paid billions and billions and billions in damages.
00:00:53
Speaker
criminal liabilities and whatever other ah things. are i'm I'm not super deep on the research on that side of

Pharmaceutical Motives and Drug Efficacy

00:01:00
Speaker
things. So many, so many people have done amazing work. And for example, I have this book here called Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime, How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare by Peter Gottsche. Gottsche. And there's a forward by editor in chief, the former editor in chief of the BMJ British Medical Journal and the deputy editor of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. So a lot of people in the system understand that, you know, these guys are criminals. Really, it's really just that simple.
00:01:41
Speaker
And a lot of their drugs have killed and maimed and destroyed the the the health and the lives of millions upon millions of people. It's kind of been scrubbed off the Internet. You can still find articles, I think, like on and MSNBC or CNBC. I can still see if you if you do a third leading cause of death, if you do a search on that, on DuckDuckGoats, some articles from before 2020, like in 2018, 2019, will still come up.
00:02:10
Speaker
And I've actually saved some of these because up until then, even Wikipedia showed that the third d and leading cause of death is prescription drugs. And that's what this book talks about. um And they he gets really deep into the into the specific drugs and the the the fraudulent um um safety trials and efficacy trials and all the marketing and the you know, the corruption and so on. So that's my biggest, I suppose my biggest reason why I don't trust by default anything that comes out of these companies.

Personal Experiences and Natural Remedies

00:02:45
Speaker
But here's the thing, you have to understand I'm not against all the drugs. There's so many good drugs out there. The problem is they're not getting used.
00:02:55
Speaker
because they're not sexy, they're not new, they're not patented or the new ones that are patented, you know, they're going to be super expensive because at the end of the day, it's a profit maximization sort of business model that they're running. And that's at the expense of the the customer, the client, right?
00:03:12
Speaker
you know you ah You got to understand, you getting super healthy makes these companies up obsolete. Everybody being super healthy makes these companies obsolete. So understand if if nothing else, there's a massive, massive conflict of interest in terms of what their goals are and what your goals are so I'll leave that there because I could rant about this for hours and hours but ah just understand I'm not against innovation or pharmacological means like I use I use a drug a pharmaceutical drug every single day of my life I've been doing so on and off for like years for since 2018
00:03:52
Speaker
And for the last two years, I've been taking it every day. And that's piracetam. I love it. I love piracetam, but it was made in the sixties. And it's very, it's very rarely used now, you know, with folks with maybe with after a stroke that might prescribe it. So, but this is an an amazing thing. It's a new tropic.
00:04:12
Speaker
And I have other specific things like antihistamines and stuff like that in my stash that I think are really good. They're useful tools. And I actually think aspirin is good. I take aspirin now every day for almost ah the the last but past year. so But that that that comes from um from a natural compound. You see, there the best things seem to be usually things that block harmful stuff in the body, like histamine and estrogen or whatever else, um serotonin, or their analogs of natural compounds that have beneficial effects like aspirin, which is, you know, among other things, a Cox and Lox inhibitor, which stops inflammatory cascades in the body, which is awesome. So
00:05:02
Speaker
It's not that I'm against necessarily everything that comes out of them, but for the most part, you have to understand their motives.

Cholesterol Debate and Statins Discussion

00:05:10
Speaker
okay So the the here's the thing, though. Statins are very effective at lowering cholesterol, but they they might not actually have any meaningful effect on decreasing mortality. And that's the whole point of the exercise, right? We are lowering the cholesterol in order to reduce mortality, chance of death and so on. But they don't seem to do that. And the initial trials seem to do that, but they were run by the companies, right? And then as I cite in my um How to Actually Live Longer book, volume one,
00:05:50
Speaker
This is from a study called a paper called Statin stimulate Stimulate Atherosclerosis and Heart Failure, Pharmacological Mechanism. Let me just repeat that again. The paper, I think it was out of Japan, is called
00:06:10
Speaker
statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure, pharmacological mechanisms. And this is now citing the paper, since the introduction of statins to clinical medicine in 1987, several kinds of statins were reported to be effective in lowering LDLC and also preventing coronary heart disease events, mostly in the 1990s. However,
00:06:38
Speaker
Unfair and unethical problems were associated with clinical trials reported by industry-supported scientists, and the new penal regulations on clinical trials came into effect in 2004. After 2004-2005,
00:06:56
Speaker
All clinical trials performed by scientists relatively free of conflict of interest with pharmaceutical industries reported that statins were effective in lowering LDLC, but no significant beneficial effects were observed for the prevention of coronary heart disease. Okay.
00:07:22
Speaker
So they are really good at lowering cholesterol, but no significant beneficial effects were observed for the prevention of coronary heart disease, okay? So that's that's one one reason.
00:07:36
Speaker
And then from the same paper, they also stated the the the authors. They stated, currently, the majority of scientists continue to claim that statins are effective in preventing coronary heart disease. But these claims are based on meta-analyses of reports, including those published before the EU regulation, mostly in the 1990s. So there's tons, tons of research, meta-analyses and all that good stuff that is that has Intuit fed a bunch of crappy science. That includes all the cholesterol and stuff from the 1950s, the 1960s. A lot of that research ah was built on foundations of sand and all the meta-analyses and all the stuff people are citing nowadays in support of that. A lot of it is
00:08:31
Speaker
You know, some of it is downright fraudulent to begin with and then a lot of it is based on ah erroneous assumptions and so on. So a lot of the the the big body of evidence that people will ah sort of throw at you about cholesterol and LDL and heart disease and all that stuff, right?
00:08:51
Speaker
it's it's just based on on really very loose associations and terribly done science and in in some cases fraud and in in other cases just cherry picking of data which is kind of fraud when you think about it. So the guy that sort of spearheaded this cholesterol hypothesis which again, the word hypothesis here is is is a keyword. So it was Ansel Keys in the 50s. He kind of really was the the prominent guy that was pushing this hypothesis. And the thing about a hypothesis you have to understand is if it's true,
00:09:35
Speaker
more and more evidence will build up over the decades to support it. But with the cholesterol hypothesis, it's the opposite. It's becoming weaker and and like more just more holes being found in it as as we go. So that's that's a big red flag. But this Ancel Keys guy, he there's a famous seven country study that showed his associations with ah cholesterol high cholesterol and heart disease and so on. But that actually was a 22-country study. And he cherry-picked those seven countries with that would support his his's um his hypothesis. So there's a lot of folks that have done good good work in this area, so I'm not going to rehash it all. And you can if you want the details, there's a book called The Great Cholesterol Con
00:10:30
Speaker
by the the name of the author is Malcolm Kendrick. He also wrote another one, um I think something like, <unk> The Cloth Thickens is part of the the title. I forgot the whole name. I haven't read that one, but The Great Cholesterol Con explains a lot of the stuff and Nina Tycoats, T.I.
00:10:56
Speaker
t e i c h oh he said nina tai called she wrote a good book ah The big fat surprise um that explains a lot of the history and the drama there. There's a lot of political stuff and
00:11:13
Speaker
ah sort of infighting and um vying for media attention in the nutrition space. You think they're all doing it for for our good. What should we eat to live healthier lives? But a lot of it is very shaped by industry interests and farming interests trying to sell drugs and you know folks wanting wanting to sell a lot of seed oils and products that replace butter so it's an interesting tale she she weaves I think it took her like 10 years to write that book and it's ah it's a masterpiece and God bless her for putting so much time into it but i I do not agree with her views about um carbohydrates and
00:11:58
Speaker
and low carb. So if you do read the book, know that I disagree vociferously is that the word vociferous with her views on low carb, as you may know, and if you read my How to Actually Live Longer book, I i don't think low carb keto and skipping carbohydrates is in any way, shape or form good for general health, longevity and or recovering from health problems. So anyway, and we should never like this. This is something I believe I have a talent for is I can listen and read people's work who might disagree with on a fundamental level, but I still kind of want to see their their viewpoint in case I'm wrong and to learn something. And I do that a lot.
00:12:45
Speaker
And I think a lot of people just can't do it. i I sometimes even listen to people that I strongly dislike because I know, even though they're I think they're wrong about the main points, might I might still learn something along the way. And I think this is probably one of the the the things that kind of set me apart from a lot of other practitioners.
00:13:07
Speaker
Because we we we hate to be wrong and we hate to kind of revisit our views. And I believe I, I mean, I hate being wrong, of course, but I'm i'm not gonna let that stand in the way of ah learning what is what is right and correcting myself because at the end of the day, I'm advising people about their health. And, you know, I'd rather backtrack on something than for for their their benefit than kind of you know, not mention it and hope that everything will be okay. I don't think that's unethical on many levels.

Cholesterol's Role in Hormone Synthesis and Aging

00:13:39
Speaker
But here's the thing. Let me just get back on the on the track I had scribbled down. So cholesterol is needed to synthesize vitamin D. It's needed to synthesize the steroid hormones, including including
00:13:57
Speaker
testosterone, progesterone, DHEA, right? These are protective hormones and some other stuff, obviously, cortisol and estrogen and aldosterone. These are steroid hormones and not as beneficial, but we still need them in and small amounts for basic survival. So why in the hell would I, as ah at least as a man, from my point of view, why would I want to reduce the sort of turn down the tap on the um testosterone synthesis pathway. Why would I want to give my body less of the building blocks for testosterone or vitamin D for that matter? And I think a big reason why today so most people basically are vitamin D deficient. Not only are we indoors a lot, not only are we over protecting ourselves from the sun,
00:14:49
Speaker
But when we are out in the sun, if we don't have a lot of cholesterol in the body or enough, you this may impede the synthesis of vitamin D. so bad I think it's a bad, bad idea to to lower what is and a needed ah component in in all cells as well. It's a structural component. it has so manys so There's so much cholesterol in the brain that it would be insanity to actually lower this building block.
00:15:16
Speaker
Okay, now what statins do is not only do they inhibit that enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which is kind of one of the enzymes in the cholesterol ah synthesis pathway, but they also inhibit the synthesis synthesis of Coenzyme Q10, which is People know it as an antioxidant, but it's needed in the production of energy, right? So ah ah it's small wonder a lot of people report sort of muscle cardiomyopathy and stuff like that, muscle type symptoms and weakness on statins because muscles need a lot of energy to to produce force.
00:16:03
Speaker
The other thing that statins inhibit is with vitamin K2 metabolism. And what's interesting is that vitamin K is needed you the to basically shuttle calcium away from soft tissues and into bone. So if you are vitamin K deficient, which I think a lot of people are nowadays,
00:16:30
Speaker
you may be more prone to soft tissue calcification, okay? And statins inhibit this vitamin K to metabolism. In fact, let me me just go back to that paper I cited earlier. So the paper is, remember, ah it's titled, Statins Stimulate Atherosclerosis and Heart Failure.
00:16:57
Speaker
pharmacological mechanisms. and it's ah it's a pretty It's a pretty long ah paper, but I have a ah short paragraph. I have a paragraph from it in my book, How to Actually Live Longer, and this is what the authors state. In contrast to the current belief that cholesterol reduction with status decreases atherosclerosis, we present a perspective that status may be causative in coronary artery calcification and and can function as mitochondrial toxins that in bear must excuse me that impair muscle function in the heart and blood vessels through the depletion of coenzyme Q10 and he may and thereby ATP generation. So ATP is the storage form of energy basically. It's the energy currency of the cell as it's known.
00:17:51
Speaker
So statins inhibit the synthesis of vitamin K2, the cofactor for matrix GLA protein activation, which in turn protects arteries from calcification. Statins inhibit the biosynthesis of selenium-containing proteins, one of which is glutathione peroxidase, serving to suppress peroxidative stress. Now, peroxidative stress causes damage. And if that stress happens in the vascular endothelium or the blood vessel lining, there's there's the potential for injury. And then at the injury site comes sort of cholesterol and things that are trying to repair, but it's it's ineffective fully. It's not 100% effective. And then over time you can have these build ups. I think it's a little bit of
00:18:49
Speaker
so oversimplification, but you get the idea. Continuing the the quote, an impairment of selenoprotein biosynthesis may be a factor in congestive heart failure reminiscent of the dilated cardium cardio cardiomyopathies seen with selenium deficiency. Thus, the epidemic of heart failure and atherosclerosis that plagues the modern world may paradoxically be aggravated by the pervasive use of statin drugs. We propose that current statin treatment guidelines be critically reevaluated. So end quote. And I wrote in the book, good luck getting that critically reevaluated. We won't be holding our breath. So
00:19:42
Speaker
So yeah, so as i as i as I write in my book, blocking cholesterol production is a very dumb idea. Worse, even it's harmful. So lower cholesterol levels in people are associated with lower immune function, increased risk of infection, reduced antioxidant activity, and increased incidence of cancer. And also low levels have been associated with cognitive decline. And in fact,
00:20:13
Speaker
As people get older, so in this is ah a quote from another paper in the book, you know in people older than 85 years, high total cholesterol concentrations are associated with longevity, owing to lower mortality from cancer and infection.
00:20:35
Speaker
and okay And then another quote from that same study in my book is, The impact of total serum cholesterol as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease decreases with age, which casts doubt on the necessity for cholesterol cholesterol-lowering therapy in the elderly. so This is preposterous sort of to think that something that is harmful in your 40s, 50s, 60s can become less harmful as you're getting in your 70s, 80s and 90s. That's stupid to to think that ah bacteria, viruses, pathogens, toxins, all these things
00:21:21
Speaker
remain just as harmful and potentially more dangerous because you get more depleted and older and there's more oxidative stress and less vitality and rest less adaptive reserve. So it's kind of silly to think that something can be dangerous. I'm not saying there isn't things like that, but it's kind of stupid to to really believe that cholesterol is so dangerous when you're 50, 60, 70.
00:21:46
Speaker
but then it will it will become sort of more protective and associated with less cognitive decline and better outcomes, less incidence of cancer. It's kind of stupid. Like the entire thing is, like I said earlier, it's built on very shaky ground. What else about cholesterol? So, oh yeah, so there's a really cool chart. I need to find it and kind of link to it on my website. So that this chart plots WHO mortality database data from 2002 and total cholesterol data in men in 2005 from the British Heart Foundation stat statistics from 164 countries. And it's it's kind of hard to visualize obviously over audio, but basically
00:22:36
Speaker
They found, the or not they found, but you can see on the chart clearly that there's a sweet spot where the cholesterol is 200 to 240. In that 200 to 240 range, that is a sweet spot, sort of, of lowest all-cause

Cholesterol Levels and Heart Disease

00:22:55
Speaker
mortality. so that' All that's to say is i would but mike my I would want to see that between 200 and 240 most of the time. It actually varies a lot well based on what you eat. So you don't really want to test it once and base any assumptions on that value. You want to test it multiple times and really see kind of what it is on average. but um
00:23:26
Speaker
I would want my cholesterol to be around 200, 240, and I've had my cholesterol up to 300 in the past, but that was when I was doing keto low carb stuff. I wasn't worried, but it wasn't okay. It wasn't it it did mean ah there's some there's an issue. right so if Generally, if the cholesterol is over 250, 260 and higher, that that is indicative of an issue.
00:23:55
Speaker
but The solution is not to muscle the number down. We need to figure out what is the issue causing the high cholesterol and it can be hypothyroidism. Okay, that's that's ah probably one of the the major causes for for high cholesterol. It could also be if it's an acute elevation, it could be infection, right? And it could be certain actually certain nutrient deficiencies can also play a role. this Actually, I found this out a little bit more recently, but certain mineral deficiencies could also play a role. So there's a lot of things that could cause the cholesterol level to rise. But you have to understand, there's a lot of people with high cholesterol levels that don't get heart disease. And there's also a lot of people
00:24:49
Speaker
with very or low with low cholesterol levels that do get heart disease, right? So in fact, what was the name of the study? Let me just bring it up. Oh, yeah. So yeah this is a very famous, if probably the most famous, the most influential heart disease study ever, the Framingham Heart Study. So the total cholesterol levels of of the people who developed coronary heart disease were nearly identical to those that didn't.
00:25:19
Speaker
And the only exceptions generally were when they were the levels were under 150 or over 380 milligrams per deciliter. But most of us fall in the category or in that sort of 150 to 380. Most of us are in that range. you know most I think most people would be probably in the 150 to 250 range.
00:25:42
Speaker
so so that that that study was done I think Jesus in the 70s I think it was in the 70s so so people with low cholesterol level get heart disease and a lot of people with very high cholesterol levels don't get heart disease so it's gotta be something else and think about it this way this is I really think ah when you when you start putting the the pieces together. This one really dismantles the whole cholesterol hypothesis. So we get atherosclerosis in very specific places, arteries.
00:26:28
Speaker
Veins don't get atherosclerotic plaques and lesions, nowhere at least nowhere near as much as arteries, right? So it seems like it it it's a factor of maybe the blood pressure, the blood flow speed and stuff like that.

Diet, Fats, and Inflammation

00:26:46
Speaker
But what's probably the biggest reason why people get damaged in this sort of ah vascular endothelium is i i I think the biggest reason, this is probably the biggest reason, is the very high
00:27:05
Speaker
polyunsaturated fat content of our tissues of our body it's because we've been eating as a population We've been eating a lot of Omega-6s, a lot of polyunsaturated fats. And when these become part of our body, our brain, our skin, our organs, our blood vessels, these are very easily peroxidized. and And when they get peroxidized, they cause damage to things around them. It actually creates a chain reaction of peroxidative damage that has to be terminated by ah ah what is known as a terminal antioxidant. So certain enzymes, I think vitamin C and vitamin E as well, these are kind of terminal antioxidants. And when that damage occurs, this is where we we get sort of the, this is the analogy people sometimes uses.
00:27:56
Speaker
ah that damage to let's say to the to the blood vessel is the fire. So it's a fire so you have firemen coming to put out the fire, like cholesterol and so on. So what the research has done is they looked at the issue, atherosclerotic plaques, lesions, whatever, and they see cholesterol there in those plaques. So they they say,
00:28:23
Speaker
the firemen that are coming to this fire, they're always here. Every time there's a fire, there's firemen. Therefore, the firemen are causing the fire. That's kind of the the example that some folks that you know go deeper into the cholesterol, ah heart disease hypothesis use. And it's a really good example. It's like, okay, well, could it be because cholesterol is a,
00:28:51
Speaker
part of the cell structure, it's like a structural component and there's so many other roles in the body, protective roles, steroid hormone production and so on. Could it be it's it's being shuttled there as part of the repair processes, but because of the because of a lot of other problems that most people have is, you know, a lot of inflammation and an inflammatory environment, a lot of oxidative stress, the two kind of go hand in hand. So those repair processes are suboptimal. And when you also look at other things, like a lot of people have deficiencies in minerals, in vitamins, like the fat soluble vitamins. So vitamin E protects from
00:29:30
Speaker
ah this in um oxidative stress, right? Because it's a terminal antioxidant. which whether When there's ah omega-6 fatty acid per oxidation, it will protect those cells right so or those fatty acids rather. Vitamin K, again, it's one of its roles is to make sure that the calcium gets where it's supposed to go to the
00:29:58
Speaker
to the bones instead of allowing the soft tissue to become calcified. So a lot of people are very deficient in these fat soluble vitamins. b One of the reasons is because of the demonization of saturated fats and the saturated fat on an animal, the the butter, the the the fat on like like beef and lamb, that contains a lot of fat soluble vitamins. and this demonization of saturated fats along with the cholesterol hypothesis is another a thing that's been picked apart, complete BS. And that's been another thing perpetrated upon humanity and and it has caused untold harm.
00:30:43
Speaker
and ah and ah just
00:30:47
Speaker
innuber innumerable early deaths and disease and and and so on and so forth. Because the omega-6 is these polyunsaturated fats and margarines and shortenings and and oils, plant oils that replaced the butter, the saturated fats and ah the whatever else, ghee and stuff like that. These do have ah vitamin E. There are a good source of vitamin E, but they are pretty much devoid of vitamin A, vitamin K, a oh yeah been forgot the fat so vitamins there for a second ah vitamin D, and stuff like that. so
00:31:34
Speaker
Really, ah it it creates a very unbalanced ah environment. you know so a lot of At the end of the day, the reason I would never take a statin is, first of all, i what I teach my clients is how to create a dietary and nutritional program for yourself where these these risks are greatly ameliorated.

Stress Management and Holistic Health

00:32:00
Speaker
yeah And then we we also we also work in we work on the stress piece. I have a lot of strategies for lowering stress physically, like the cortisol physically getting lowered because
00:32:16
Speaker
it's It's very damaging and harmful, but that's another piece that I really don't have time to get into, but stress is a big factor in heart disease actually, because let's say you are eating sub-optimally, you're not eating the way I advise my clients to eat, and you're not taking the the the supplements that will help protect you ah like my my clients do, and I do, and I take. um Then you're not using the strategies we use with my clients to lower your stress hormones and so stress levels. if If you have this environment, so it's an inflammatory environment where there's a lot of omega sixes in the body and you're not protecting yourself from them, from from their inflammatory potential and their oxidative stress potential.
00:33:08
Speaker
And then when you add the stress on top that is not mitigated or ameliorated using some of the strategies we use, then you have potential for inflammation and oxidative stress. And on top of that, when your stress levels are high and then mitigated, what does that do? Well, first of all, it degenerates the body over time. Yeah. The the the lean tissue, the the muscles, the bones, the organs.
00:33:33
Speaker
joints, skin, anything that has collagen and protein will get broken down by cortisol because that's what it that it's that is its primary role. But the other piece is the adrenaline. that the The stress hormones rise in tandem and they fall generally in tandem. The adrenaline will also raise your, ah well, in general, the stress hormones, they will raise your blood pressure. they have these Some of them have vasoconstrictive properties, others generally will just raise the blood pressure through other mechanisms. So this then will put a greater strain on the vasculature at the end of the day, right? And if you
00:34:21
Speaker
are not getting the the nutrition and the supplementation to mitigate that inflammation and oxidative stress potential, then having a blood ah high blood pressure on top of that may exacerbate or accelerate the damaging processes. And this is how, if you take two people, and I don't have data on this because obviously I've not been a practitioner for 20 years, and we don't we we won't really be able to clone people and do this kind of ah experiments, but if you take a person that just continue continues on their merry way, ignorant of all this information that I have in my head and share with my clients, and then you have the other person that immediately begins to eat the right way, ah supplement in a way that reduces the the inflammatory processes, the oxidative stress, you know adding adding nutrition,
00:35:16
Speaker
adding supplemental stuff that is required for ah you know all these processes to to work optimally and lowering the stress through lifestyle interventions, but also through supplementation. Well, over these, let's say 20 year time period, this person, the sort of client prototype I'm talking about, they will accrue less damage over time because again, the stress hormones like cortisol degenerate the body, they raise the blood pressure so that can exacerbate
00:35:53
Speaker
potential problems then the inflammation will continue continuing unabated will continue to cause problems like oxidative stress tissue damage immune system dysregulation a million things could really happen here so that is that is what we It's one of the the things we we do with with clients is we really get these these pieces sort of put in place and then the rest is some of it takes time by getting these Omega sixes out of the body takes time improving metabolic function.
00:36:33
Speaker
ah Improving sort of the the the the thyroid side of things with by eating enough carbohydrates by you know not doing stupid things like intermittent fasting or fasting or whatever these things would then. On their own.
00:36:47
Speaker
lower the cholesterol level. But again, the problem is not the high cholesterol level. Again, well we've we have many examples of people that do not develop coronary heart disease and so on that have high cholesterol levels and many people that have low cholesterol levels that do the develop heart disease. So it's not that we're trying to lower a number on a piece of paper like cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c,
00:37:15
Speaker
blood glucose whatever it's we're putting things into place that optimize the body's functioning and then the body will decide how high that cholesterol level will be and it will rise and fall depending on a lot of things you know depending on diet ah depending on sort of ah not just the the components of the diet but how much how many calories of total energy intake, let's say, you're you're taking in. If you get sick, if you have an acute infection. So these these things fluctuate a lot. So we something like the cholesterol level needs to be under 200 for optimal health. These these are just numbers someone plucked out of their ass. Excuse my French.
00:38:03
Speaker
to to come up with it. And you I just explained that, for at least for men, the sweet spot is actually 200 to 240. And if you go to, like at least here in Portugal, if you go to the to the to get your your blood work done,
00:38:18
Speaker
they
00:38:21
Speaker
199 and under, you know you're getting yeah going to get a participation meadow. If it's 200 to 239, that's moderately elevated. And then it's if it's 239 or 240 plus here, it's very elevated. So you're considered it a higher higher risk factor for a bunch of different things, but it's that's BS basically. So I'm trying to say you are a high risk factor for a lot of disease and horrible symptoms and low quality of life and poor health. If your body's internal environment is that of and ah inflammatory high inflammatory potential, a lot of oxidative stress, nutrient deficiencies, um not eating enough ah high quality food, so a lot of toxins, congested liver, poor gut function, you know inflammatory dysbiosis,
00:39:20
Speaker
diminished detoxification capacities. This is what will cause you to have diseases and and low um shorter lifespan and reduced health span. These are the things. You could chase numbers all you want, but if you don't address these things, which is what we work with we work on with my clients.

Conclusion and Further Resources

00:39:44
Speaker
The chasing numbers is is really um an exercise in futility. So I hope that, geez, 40 minutes. I was hoping this to be 20 minutes. So I hope that made sense why I would never, and it's not necessarily a statin. I don't think any any sort of measure like this to lower, but most markers are ah on a piece of paper, on a lab test,
00:40:10
Speaker
If we just try to lower the the number, if we're chasing numbers on a piece of paper, we're not doing our job in terms of optimizing the body's functioning. We should not be we should use we should be using them as sort of data on which to base our our actions, but we shouldn't be taking a pill to lower a number and on a piece of paper. This is what I'm trying to say. If we do that, we we could do that, let's say, with metformin, that will lower your blood glucose. But did it did it address the cause of your high blood glucose? What if your high blood glucose is because of a high highly stressful lifestyle and job? So cortisone we know like raises your blood sugar. It's primary role. So if you take metformin or berberine,
00:41:01
Speaker
you will lower the blood glucose, but you've done nothing about the the high cortisol level or your stresses. So you're doing nothing. all you are doing I'm not saying you, but your practitioners are recommending these things. They are happy. They think they've done their job because the the blood glucose is lower or the ah cholesterol level is lower, but they have done nothing to actually improve your health when they do silly little things like that. Okay.
00:41:29
Speaker
so Hope that makes sense. Thank you for for listening or watching this. And remember, if you haven't got my book, how to actually live longer, volume one, get yourself a copy. um Keep in mind...
00:41:43
Speaker
Volume two and three are in my head and I do the stuff with my clients I just haven't had the time to to pull up put it on down on paper So I have multiple volume if you've read the book and you got value out of it There's a lot more if you become a client that you can get out of my head basically so ah keep that in mind if you're if you need help with your health journey and go to my website and you can request a free call with me see if we're a good fit to work together otherwise thank you for tuning in hope you got value out of this and I'll see you on the next episode