Statin Drugs Deplete CoQ10

Massive sales of statin drugs are at the economic heart of the false cholesterol-heart hypothesis, which is why many doctors don’t dare to do other than prescribe statins to every patient with a high LDL number— or even a high total cholesterol number. Even women, even senior citizens, even black people— even though research only shows health benefits (fewer cardiac events) in middle-aged white males.

In this blog post I’m not going to question the wisdom of that— you can research it yourself if you are interested— but I am going to stick to one topic— the fact that statin drugs are known to deplete your body’s supply of CoQ10. This is so well known a Big Pharma company patented a statin drug combined with a CoQ10 supplement, but never manufactured it, lest it draw attention to a problem that was at the time relatively unknown. 

What is CoQ10? It is a vitamin-like substance found in every cell in your body. Our bodies need CoQ10 to function! Statin drugs, which block your body’s production of cholesterol— both good and bad cholesterol— also blocks the production of CoQ10. This blockage is bad for your heart as well as for your skeletal muscles. 

Even some doctors that loudly warn against the use of statins may use statins in a small patient group, not because it lowers cholesterol, but because it lowers inflammation, the real cause of heart disease. In male, middle-aged patients who have had heart attacks, especially if they won’t quit smoking and adopt a low-carb lifestyle, some statin-skeptic doctors do prescribe statins. But CoQ10 supplementation is necessary!

I’ve recently gone shopping for CoQ10 supplements both for myself and my 91-year-old mother. My mother went on statins about 20 years ago, and promptly developed full-blown diabetes. That made me a statin-skeptic, but not my mom. Now, she is having a hard time walking, and falls sometimes. I couldn’t get her to stop the statin as her nurse-practitioner is a true believer (or has to pretend to be.) So I got some CoQ10 for my mom. It was pricey! 

In my own case, I would worry about going on a statin because of the CoQ10 and its cost. Medicaid will pay for my prescription drugs, but not for the CoQ10 I would need because of them! I have a hard enough time, on my Medicaid and SSI disability, to pay for my low-carb diet foods, not to mention my home heating (propane) costs! 

As a believer in natural/nutritional remedies instead of going on drugs, I wish that Medicaid would have to pay for our supplements— at least those the doctor or physician’s assistant recommends! My PA recommended I take fish oil supplements years ago, but I stopped due to cost, and due to the fact I wanted a GOOD fish oil product and not the cheapest generic. Since reading The Great Cholesterol Myth, I’ve restarted a good fish oil as well as CoQ10— in part because both help with high blood pressure and I don’t want to go on drugs over that if I can help it. 

Reading List on Cholesterol & Statins

If you are concerned about cholesterol and statin drugs, read these books— all have medical doctors as authors or co-authors, except for Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taube, who is a bestselling and well-respected author on scientific topics. I have read all of these and learned a lot.

The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why lowering your cholesterol won’t prevent heart disease— and the statin-free plan that will. 

Cholesterol Clarity

The Cure for Heart Disease — Truth that will Save a Nation

The Dark Side of Statins: Plus: The Wonder of Cholesterol

Good Calories, Bad Calories

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The Secret to Better Bulletproof Coffee

Drinking bulletproof coffee (or other beverages) is a popular thing on the Keto lifestyle, and there are dozens of recipes. Sometimes the recipes need to be adapted a bit, either to improve the taste or to improve the ketogenic effect.

The base recipe for Bulletproof coffee calls for a cup of coffee, a tablespoon of butter, coconut oil, or MCT oil, a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream, and, if desired, 1-8 drops of stevia sweetener (Sweetleaf brand is recommended.) I personally also add a pinch of Himalayan pink salt (or other sea salt.) The Keto lifestyle can shrink your salt consumption radically overnight, and that can cause symptoms. And even when you’ve been doing Keto for a while, a dose of quality salt won’t hurt you. AND it can help you reduce the amount of sweeteners you use in your coffee! 

The Butter or oil

I think that the earliest bulletproof coffee used butter. Kerrygold butter, from grass-fed cows, is really good for this use if you can afford it. MCT oil is a kind of oil that is derived from coconut oil. It is the best thing for putting your body into ketosis (the whole point of the Keto lifestyle.) WARNING: do NOT put MCT oil in a styrofoam cup. Use a paper disposable coffee cup if you can get it, or a real coffee cup and wash it.  Coconut oil is another alternative for this ingredient. If you get coconut oil that is liquid at room temperature, don’t put it in styrofoam, either. Because coconut oil has MCT oil in it, and the kind that’s liquid at room temperature has even more MCT oil in it. If you like coconut flavor, ‘extra virgin’ coconut oil has that flavor, regular coconut oil does not. Amounts used are 1-2 tablespoons. If starting with MCT oil, use 1 or 1/2 tablespoon at first and work your way up. For that matter, if you are unused to any kind of butter or oil in your coffee, start small and work your way up. Note: If you save your bacon fat, you can also add that to bulletproof coffee. 

Heavy Whipping Cream

This is what people used before there was ‘creamer.’ Be sure it says ‘heavy’ whipping cream and not just whipping cream. And of course don’t use a ‘creamer’ with sugar, artificial sweeteners, or other ingredients. Creamer should come from milk which comes from cows. Or goats. Or yaks. If the store is out of heavy whipping cream, you can use other milk products such as half-and-half or even whole milk, but don’t use much. 

If you can’t have dairy, the best solution is to just omit this ingredient. Otherwise, you might try a bit of canned coconut milk. If you like the taste, that is. I thought for quite a while I couldn’t drink coffee without a little cream. I ran out of cream and found out that bulletproof coffee is good without it.

Amount is usually 1-2 tablespoons.

The Coffee

You can use brewed coffee from a coffee machine, or instant coffee powder. Decaf or full caf. Just don’t get a coffee powdered mix like International Coffee which has sugar, sweetener or flavorings in it. I’ve never been a coffee fiend so I get by with instant. I switch off between caffeined coffee and Sanka decaf. 

Sweetener

If you’ve used an artificial sweetener, you probably did it for the wrong reasons. It’s not about saving ’calories.’ After all, we can eat a plate of bacon on Keto and not count a calorie of it. The reasons we don’t like sugar or sweeteners are these: there could be carbs, and even a zero-carb sweetener could raise our blood sugars by provoking an insulin response. I use Sweetleaf brand liquid stevia, and I use only a few drops— 2 or 3. And some days I use no sweetener at all. Though when I do get generous with the Sweetleaf, it doesn’t seem to affect my blood sugars any.

Salt

A pinch (1/8 teaspoon) of Himalayan pink salt or a good sea salt really makes a bulletproof coffee. If you are worried about salt, know that Dr Eric Westman doesn’t take salt away even from patients with high blood pressure— the Keto dietary lifestyle does the job of lowering blood pressure. And the salt and other minerals in sea salt are beneficial.

Other Bulletproof beverages

You can make bulletproof beverages with tea, herbal tisanes (‘herb tea’), home-made bone broth and cocoa drink (1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder in hot water, usually with some Sweetleaf drops.) Just add the other bulletproof beverage fixin’s to the beverage in question. 

Other flavorings

Sweetleaf stevia sweetener comes in various flavors as well as plain, and you can use any flavor. You can also add a bit of cinnamon or other spice for flavoring. I mostly only use cinnamon in bulletproof hot cocoa, and then only some of the time, as I’m not sure I like it, but cinnamon is good for diabetics.

When fasting

When fasting, we mostly consume water, or plain black coffee or tea. But Dr. Jason Fung in The Complete Guide to Fasting allows one cup of ‘semi-bulletproof’ coffee or drink while fasting. Use about 1 teaspoon of the butter/oil, or 1/2 t oil and 1/2 t cream. 

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Learn more about Keto and/or Fasting

I find it helps to read books about these subjects so I have all the information I need. It's also inspiring to know I'm not doing this alone.

 The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body through Intermittent, Alternate-Day and Extended Fasting  This book, by Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore, really changed my life. Fasting, added to my keto diet, helped me start losing weight again after I got 'stuck' at a certain too-high weight and wanted to lose more.

Dr Atkins Diet Revolution This was the first ketogenic diet that recommended measuring ketones--- at the time with urine test strips.

The Obesity Code: Unlocking The Secrets of Weight Loss - I haven't finished reading this book yet, but it is by Dr. Jason Fung, who also is co-author of the The Complete Guide to Fasting.