US Doctors Urge Wider Use Of Cholesterol Drugs

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20. "The wrong question is being asked." - Dr. Dean Ornish

My dr. was concerned about my cholesterol a few years ago, so I immediately made some changes: cut out all soft drinks and most other sugary foods; cut out desserts and fattening snacks; drastically reduced the amount of saturated fat in my diet; greatly increased the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet (they're actually pretty delicious, you know), and began a program of regular cardiovascular exercise. The results were dramatic, and were enough to convince him I didn't need statins. I found Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease very helpful.

The New York Times LTTE below from Dr. Ornish, in reaction to an earlier call for more statin prescriptions, is interesting.

Apparently there are some people who just are not able to get their cholesterol into the healthy range, and for those people maybe statins are part of the solution. But I agree with Dr. Ornish that these drugs are way over-prescribed. Too many Americans just want to pop a pill to correct their health problems, and the pharmaceutical industry is happy to reap the resulting profits.

An Alternative to Statins
Published: April 2, 2010

To the Editor:
Re “Plan to Widen Use of Statins Has Skeptics” (front page, March 31): The wrong question is being asked. It’s not: “Should Crestor be given to reduce inflammation?” It should be: “What is the cause of chronic inflammation, and what can be done to address these causes?” We and others have shown in peer-reviewed research that lifestyle factors like poor nutrition, lack of exercise, chronic emotional stress and social isolation are underlying causes of chronic inflammation.

C-reactive protein and other biomarkers of inflammation are significantly reduced when people make comprehensive lifestyle changes. And unlike the billions of dollars spent on statin drugs, with the attendant known and unknown side effects (including a 9 percent rise in the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, which is already epidemic), the only side effects of comprehensive lifestyle changes are good ones.

These include reversing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, reductions in LDL cholesterol comparable to what can be achieved with statins, and improvements in gene expression like turning off genes that promote inflammation, prostate cancer and breast cancer.

Dean Ornish
Sausalito, Calif., April 1, 2010

The writer, a doctor, is founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.