Has your doctor recommended you take a statin (cholesterol-lowering) drug?

In the old days, almost all of my heart patients were on statins. These days, even people who don’t have heart problems are taking them.

Most doctors have good intentions. They prescribe statins as a preventative. This sounds great until you look at just a few of the side effects from taking these drugs:

• Muscle pain
• Liver damage
• Nausea
• Lowered mental performance
• Chronic fatigue
• Cardiomyopathy (deterioration of your heart’s function)

But that’s not all. Statins aggressively deplete your heart of life-giving CoQ10. This leads to even more problems, including congestive heart failure.

This is a serious problem.

Consider this…

“I have seen a frightening increase in heart failure secondary to statin usage … Over the past five years, statins have become more potent, are being prescribed in higher doses, and are being used with reckless abandon in the elderly and in patients with ‘normal’ cholesterol levels.” - Dr. Peter H. Langsjoen, a leading authority on treating heart disease with CoQ10.

99% of the time, statins are unnecessary.

For example, did you know a common, everyday fruit can lower cholesterol just as well?

You probably have it in your kitchen right now.

I’m talking about avocados. This tasty fruit is packed with heart-healthy oleic acid.

In one study, researchers got a group of people with high cholesterol. They put them on a diet high in avocados. The result?

After just one week, the subjects significantly lowered their total cholesterol and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Even more impressive – their HDL increased by 11%.1

This is just one of many natural and powerful alternatives to statins.

Here are three more.

Fish – A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that regularly eating fish or taking fish oil supplements was just as effective at reducing the risk of death from heart attack as statin drugs.2 Wild-caught salmon is best. It doesn’t have all the pollutants found in farm-raised fish. It’s also high in omega-3s. Or you can supplement. I recommend anywhere from 700 to 2,000 mg per day.

Ginger – This amazing blood thinner is also effective at lowering total cholesterol. In one study, researchers gave mice with high cholesterol a ginger extract for 10 weeks. At the end of the study, the mice had significantly lowered their cholesterol.3 I recommend you take 300 mg daily.

A glass of wine – Okay, so it’s not technically a food. But it can improve your cholesterol naturally. A review study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a link between moderate alcohol consumption (1-2 drinks a day) and improved HDL. Turns out it can boost it by 12%.4 The key here is moderation. Don’t go overboard. If you go this route, I suggest you drink red wine. In addition to the HDL-boosting effect, you’ll get a small dose of the powerful antioxidant resveratrol.

When I first started my practice, I quickly became known for successfully diagnosing “incurable” patients.

Many times I just followed the mantra, “Let food be your medicine.”