Short Study On Statins & Supplements: What Choice Do You Have?

Reference Article Linked Here.

This study was a very short study – only 28 days – that sought to explore a very big question: Are statins better than supplements and placebo. The drug maker funded this story. (I have a sneaking suspicion that they saw their bottom line impacted by supplement sales.)

As an aside, when reading studies, always check and see who is funding it. I’m always grateful that someone has sufficient interest n a product to fund studies that increase our overall knowledge.

This study was also a small study with only 199 participants who ranged in age from 40 to 75 years old. It’s important to note that none of the participants had a history of cardiovascular disease and only had a small risk of developing cardiovascular disease within the next 10 years.

In my practice, these folks have ‘time’ to make changes. Working to lower cholesterol is a lifetime piece of work. In my practice, if the patient has low risk, is asymptomatic, and is willing to do lifestyle/nutrition work, then I discuss a longer time frame to pursue cholesterol lowering. Heart health isn’t just about lowering cholesterol. Very importantly, reducing overall systemic smoldering inflammation is also critically important.

This study focused on cholesterol and focused on dropping cholesterol over a very short period of time in a healthy population. While this construct makes sense to conventional medicine, it doesn’t make much sense to me as a provider.

Researchers randomly selected the participants to take either a placebo each day, 5 mg of rosuvastatin each day, or a daily dose of fish oil (2,400 mg), cinnamon (2,400 mg), garlic (5,000 mcg allicin), turmeric (curcumin with bioperine 4,500 mg), plant sterols (1600mg), or red yeast rice (2,400 mg). That means this study had 8 arms so there were only 25 individuals in each arm. It is very hard to draw many conclusions from so few people in any particular arm of a small short study. The good news is that sufficient doses of the supplements were used.

So…..short study, few people….what can we conclude:

We can ONLY conclude that for individuals who want to lower cholesterol fast, within 28 days, they should chose to use statins rather than supplements. This conclusion is not surprising. I’d never use supplements for rapid lowering of cholesterol or rapid treatment of heart related conditions.

For those people who have time and need to reduce their cholesterol, I would still support the use of supplements. Always keep in mind that nutrition and lifestyle change are necessary to influence heart health most effectively.

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