FAIL: Merck's Statin Drug Found No Better Than Coconut Water

FAIL: Merck's Statin Drug Found No Better Than Coconut Water







Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

In a 2008 study published in the journal Food Chemistry & Toxicology
titled, "Comparative evaluation of the hypolipidemic effects of coconut
water and lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet,"1 the
beverage coconut water was found as effective as a popular
cholesterol-lowering drug in positively modulating blood lipid levels in
rats.

The conclusion of the study was as follows:
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Coconut water has lipid lowering effect similar to the drug lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet.</blockquote>Studies
like this, of course, will never make it to the level of the
multi-phased human clinical trials necessary to gain FDA drug approval,
owing to one simple fact: coconut water is not patentable, and therefore
will not provide market exclusivity or the return on investment
necessary to capitalize such a venture. Consider that, on average, over
800 million dollars is spent upfront on developing and testing each new drug intended for FDA approval.

Statin Drugs: Defrauding the Public of Their Money & Health

When the water of a coconut is at least as effective
as the drug that started the "statin revolution" in 1987 - Merck's
branded lovastatin extract known as Mevacor - you know that the 30 billion dollar statin drug industry is based on a fundamentally erroneous premise: namely, that synthetic patentable chemicals are superior to natural ones, and therefore can be sold for usuriously high mark-ups.



Unfortunately, the statin drug industry is not only defrauding people of
their money, but also their health. As we reported in a previous post,
the Journal of Clinical Cardiology in 2009 confirmed that these drugs weaken the heart muscle. Newer research indicates that statins may also be accelerating arterial calcification in susceptible individuals.

Moreover, we have identified over 300 unintended, adverse effects of statin drug use, with the top 20 listed below:


Beyond the "Lipid Hypothesis"

While lowering cholesterol is not a priority for me, as I am not a
"lipid hypothesis" convert -- to the contrary, I see the clear harms associated with low cholesterol
-- people who are convinced that lowering cholesterol and/or
lipoproteins reduces cardiovascular disease progression and/or cardiac
mortality should at least be well informed as to the natural
evidence-based alternatives that exist to drugs.

After all, anything would be more reasonable than taking a metabolic
poison to inhibit the production of cholesterol and/or lipoproteins on a
cellular level. If we feel we must abide by largely drug
industry-determined lipid guidelines, e.g. keeping LDL below 100 mg/dl,
natural substances like policosanol or red yeast rice can "do the job" quite effectively. In fact, we have collected research on over 100 natural substances with lipid lowering properties.

I am far more interested in the broad range of factors that contribute
to atherosclerosis than simply suppressing cholesterol/lipoprotein
levels through the "by any chemical means necessary" approach. To view
all the sections on our database relevant to cardiovascular health in
one place, along with plenty of research on natural substances and
therapies which contribute to preventing these factors from adversely
affecting our health, visit our Heart Health Research Center.

Source:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/fail-mercks-statin-drug-found-no-better.html