Cholesterol Lowering Statins May Kill Omega-3

Cholesterol Lowering Statins May Kill Omega-3

Sayer Ji


There is a growing awareness that the unintended, adverse health
effects of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs far outweigh their
purported benefits. But now new research indicates that these drugs may
even interfere with the heart-protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids
in those who are taking them.


A new study published in the journal BMC Medicine is shedding
much needed light on why the widely publicized fish oil study released
late last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which diverged from earlier randomized controlled trials (RCTs) demonstrating the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, showed no evidence of cardiovascular disease risk reduction associated with omega-3 intake.


In the new study,
researchers at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France
proposed that more recent RCTs on fish oil and heart health that have
reported negative findings, like the JAMA study, can be explained by two
hidden confounding variables:


Today, with both increased awareness of the health benefits and
increased consumption of omega-3 fats, the vast majority of participants
in these newer controlled trials are no longer as omega-3 fat deficient
and therefore may not show as great (if any) measurable beneficial
effect when given additional supplemented omega-3.

The vast majority of contemporary RCT study participants are also on
statin drugs, which suppress the beneficial properties of omega-3 fatty
acids within the body, making negative findings more likely.[i]

The second confounding variable, that statins suppress omega-3 fatty
acid benefits, is the most groundbreaking, as very few doctors or
patients are away of this possibility. On the other hand, statins exert
such a broad range of adverse health effects in the body, including
major deficiencies of zinc, copper, selenium, coq10, vitamin E, and
possibly vitamin D, as well, that we shouldn't be all that
surprised.[ii]


In support of their hypothesis they cite research indicating
that statin drugs favor the metabolism of omega-6 fatty acids, which in
turn inhibit omega-3 fatty acids; essentially omega-6 and omega-3
compete with one another for the same metabolic enzymes, indicating that
the ratio in the diet is more important than absolute values.[iii]
Also, omega-6 fats, contrary to omega-3's, increase insulin resistance,
increasing the risk of diabetes. This may explain the well-known diabetogenic properties of statin drugs.[iv]


An over preponderance of omega-6 fats have also been linked to
inflammatory health conditions and cancer,[v] which may be due to the
role they play in the excessive formation of arachidonic acid, a
substrate for inflammation-associated enzymes COX2 and LOX, as well as
contributing to the downstream formation of many inflammatory hormones
in the body, e.g. PGE2, thromboxane, leukotriene, etc.


Since most of prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs on
the market increase the blood concentration of arachidonic, it is quite
possible that statin-induced dysregulation of omega-3/omega-6
production, their ratio and metabolism, may contribute to a whole host
of adverse health effects. Indeed, the biomedical literature signals
over 300 health problems caused by this chemical class of drugs.[vi]


The French researchers also cite post-hoc statin drug research
demonstrating that when separating statin users and non-users, omega-3
mediated cardioprotection was observed only in non-statin users, but not
statin users. Also, in recent randomized controlled testing omega-3
supplementation was found to reduce the risk of arrhythmias only in
patients not taking a statin.


Discussion
Millions of asymptomatic patients are now
taking statin drugs as a primary preventive strategy against
cardiovascular disease, despite the well-known myotoxicity,[vii]
neurotoxicity,[viii] and yes, cardiotoxicity of this class of drugs.[ix]
Omega-3 fatty acids, on the other hand, are increasingly being shunned
as ineffective, despite their profound safety, low cost and the broad
range of experimentally confirmed therapeutic properties associated with
their consumption, and which now number in the hundreds. You can view
250 such health benefits on our database: Omega-3 Health Benefits.


If the French researchers' hypothesis is correct, statin-induced
adverse changes in essential fatty acid metabolism may be contaminating
clinical trials that attempt to demonstrate the value of omega-3 fats
and fish oil for human health. Given the near universal prevalence of
statin drug use among today's studied populations, and the other
mentioned variable of increasing background rates of omega-3 fat
consumption, it is unlikely that future studies on omega-3 (or fish oil)
intake and cardiovascular disease will differ from the latest negative
JAMA study.


More here: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/cholesterol-lowering-statins-may-kill-omega-3-heart-benefits


Source:-
http://activist-post-forum.947009.n3.nabble.com/Cholesterol-Lowering-Statins-May-Kill-Omega-3-Heart-Benefits-td4025706.html