How statins increase your risk of being a type 2 diabetic
When cholesterol levels are TOO low, sugar levels rise, because, the uptake of sugar, depends on cholesterol. Too much sugar is the real cause heart disease.
A routine trip to the doctor, for a check-up, frequently turns into a prescription for a statin medication. The reason……………
You’ve got HIGH CHOLESTROL.
Officially, high cholesterol is a sign that you are a heart attack waiting to happen. And the fix, is to bring it down, dramatically using a statin. The way a statin does this, is it blocks your body’s ability to manufacture cholesterol. But…………….. at what price ?
Diabetes as a side effect
One of the “side effects” of taking a statin, is your odds of becoming a type 2 diabetic, rocket. This is not something the medical fraternity are not aware of. In fact, in February 2012, the FDA (the organization that regulates drugs in America), issued a warning, that statins negatively impact glucose regulation.
They just don’t think it matters.
I on the other hand do.
The number one killer of diabetics is………………. heart disease. And high sugar levels cause pretty much all the complications of the disease. The complications impact quality of life, these include………….. neuropathy, blindness, kidney failure, cognitive troubles etc.
The fact that taking a statin, increases your risk of becoming a diabetic, and being a diabetic, makes you a heart attack waiting to happen, MATTERS.
Especially when you realize……
Cholesterol is not the enemy
“Sugar” is.
High levels of sugar are extremely damaging to your blood vessels. To protect itself from this damage, the liver dispatches cholesterol. If you’ve eaten cholesterol it will use this, if you haven’t, it will turn on the cholesterol making machine and make a batch. How much it makes, depends on how much trouble you’re in. It has very little to do with your diet.
Cholesterol is a band-aid for damaged cells.
Unfortunately, when the cholesterol enters the war zone, it too can get damaged. This contributes to atherosclerosis.
Know thy enemy
Since high sugar levels, create the oxidative stress, that kick starts the process. The battle against heart disease needs to focus on lowering sugar levels, not lowering cholesterol levels.
And the two are not mutually exclusive.
When cholesterol levels are TOO low, sugar levels increase, because, uptake of sugar, depends on………….. cholesterol.
Strong membranes are needed
The LDL packages being dispatched by the liver are carrying cholesterol to the cells. The cells use this cholesterol to shore up their membranes. Cholesterol’s official job description………..
It allows condensation of membrane lipids and rigidifies fluid plasma membranes – reducing passive permeability, increasing mechanical properties and increasing total thickness.
Since animal cells, don’t have a big thick layer of cellulose, to give their membranes form and shape, they depend on cholesterol to do the job. Without this re-inforcement, membranes don’t function so good.
The sugars are not moving
Specifically, the transporters tasked with moving sugar, into the cells, don’t work as they should. When a team of researchers from Poland, treated a variety of cells in the lab, with statins, they found, the GLUT1 transporter, stopped working. Leaving the cells unable to move sugars inside, to be used as fuel.
This leaves cells a little hungry (which in and of itself, is problematic).
But in addition to “hungry” cells, the fact that the sugars are not moving in, leaves them hanging around on the outside.
So……………sugar levels rise in the BLOOD.
Resulting in hyperglycemia.
And………… T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
The kind of trouble that puts you at risk of heart disease etc. So what should you do ?
Taking a statin is seldom the answer
If your LDL cholesterol levels are HIGH, it is a sign you’re in trouble. You’ve got a fire brewing…… your metabolism is BROKEN.
Ignoring the problem, is not wisdom, but neither is jumping in and taking a statin.
You need to establish if your cholesterol levels are really high. Levels above 7.5 mM or 290 mg/dL are red flag levels, if you’re somewhere in the 6s, you’re fine. NOTE : Extremely low levels i.e. below 4.5 mM are not a sign of health either, they’re a red flag too, when levels are too low, your membranes don’t work correctly.
Establish the why
If your levels are elevated, you need to figure out why. And then address the why.
HINT : It probably has nothing to do with how much cholesterol you’re eating.
Diet does impact your cholesterol levels, so do your hormones (particularly your thyroid hormone), your environment, your sun tanning habits, your “bugs”, your genetics. If you need help, figuring it all out, a good place to start is to complete a body audit.
Click here to learn more….
Further reading
The brain is a big fan of cholesterol, shouldn’t you be too ?
It takes a healthy dose of oxidised cholesterol (oxysterol), to get human embryonic stem cells to grow into dopamine-producing nerve cells.
When statins attack muscles the effect is deep seated
Statins are prescribed to It seems protect people from heart attacks. But, statins can go on the offensive and attack skeletal muscles by ripping them open.
Should you feed a heart attack a high fat meal ?
Cardiovascular disease is about heart problems and diabetes is about sugar problems and the pancreas – right. Wrong, faulty blood vessels are the real problem.