Disclaimer: Any views or advice in this weblog should not be taken as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, especially if you know you have a specific health complaint. Please remember that homeopathic remedies and other health measures should be individually-selected to match the whole person, not just the unwelcome symptom. For chronic, severe or long-standing complaints, or if you are pregnant, elderly or on orthodox medications, seek professional advice rather than self-prescribing.

Coroner finds death linked to statins
Yet another statin-related tragedy has been reported: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article3177638.ece. Allan Wooley, housemaster at University College school in north London, died last April when he stepped in front of a train. A coroner linked his death to ‘psychic disturbances’ from the cholesterol-lowering drug he was taking.

Side-effects of statins
I’m not surprised at the news, because I frequently see patients in the Phoenix Homeopathy clinic who are taking statins, and who present with symptoms that could well be related to their drug. These debilitating symptoms can include muscle pain (and the more serious statin-induced myopathy – muscle disease), liver problems, headaches, nausea, fever, sexual dysfunction and performance problems, memory loss, personality changes and irritability. It makes no sense to me that drugs with such a wide range of dreadful side effects seem to be used as a first treatment to lower bad (LDL) cholesterol.

Tackling cholesterol naturally
Dietary changes can really help to lower bad cholesterol levels, so I urge my patients to regularly eat more foods containing soluble fibre (whole oats, for example as porridge). Other foods with decent levels of soluble fibre in them include kidney beans, pinto beans, brussels sprouts, oat bran, oranges, oatmeal, apples, broccoli and grapefuit. Increasing exercise (if the patient’s doctor approves) is also a great idea.

Using dietary changes to help cholesterol levels isn’t a secret: an analysis of thirteen studies done by Rispin et al and published in a 1992 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that two servings of oats daily reduced cholesterol 2-3 percent beyond what was achieved with a low-fat diet alone. To see a cholesterol-lowering effect, you need to add three grammes of soluble fibre a day into your diet, but around 20-35 grammes of total fibre (soluble and insoluble) a day is recommended.

Homeopathic help for high cholesterol
My training taught me that a programme of homeopathic remedies like Cholesterinum, Nat-mur and Thiosin may help patients with a cholesterol problem: I often prescribe the Cholesterinum monthly, and the Nat-mur and Thiosin weekly, but, as always with homeopathy, choice of remedies, potencies (strengths) and frequency of dose all depend on the individual characteristics of the patient and their case.

The great thing about natural therapies like homeopathy, and dietary changes, though, is that they’re quite safe to try, even alongside conventional drugs (like any reputable homeopath, I don’t advise on the wisdom or otherwise of taking or stopping orthodox medications, but ask patients to discuss this with the person who prescribed the meds).

CoQ10
If patients (with their doctors) decide to stay on statins, I recommend supplementing with a good brand of CoQ10, an essential nutrient to guard against congestive heart failure, and which is well known to be depleted by statins. Remember, the heart is a muscle, and statins are well-known for causing muscle problems.

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