High Cholesterol

More than 100 million American adults have total cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dL or higher, and according to government treatment guidelines, at least a third of them should be taking drugs to lower it. This is nonsense. At the Whitaker Wellness Institute, we use drug-free therapies that not only lower cholesterol naturally but, more important, also reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and enhance overall health.

The most popular drugs used to lower cholesterol—Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, and other statins—block the enzyme pathways involved in the synthesis of not only cholesterol but also coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a potent antioxidant that is involved in cellular energy production. Therefore, statin drugs deplete blood levels of this essential compound—with disastrous consequences for your health.

As CoQ10 stores decline, so does energy output, which is why statin drugs’ side effects include muscle pain and weakness and heart failure. Statins are also toxic to the liver, and they’re linked with memory loss and other neurological deficits. One statin drug (Baycol) was actually taken off the market a few years ago after causing dozens of deaths.

Conventional physicians seem to believe that high cholesterol is the end-all in cardiovascular disease, but it’s only one of several risk factors. Although we do offer a number of natural therapies for lowering cholesterol at Whitaker Wellness, we focus not only on cholesterol but on all of the known risk factors for heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular disorders.