What do statin drugs do?
From Dr Graveline In its misguided war on cholesterol as the primary cause of atherosclerosis, the pharmaceutical industry would lead us to believe that a rapid bottoming out of our natural cholesterol levels through the use of statin drugs is a relatively innocuous process of definite benefit to society. But as we learn more each day of this ubiquitous and unique cholesterol substance, we must question the veracity of this advice. Cholesterol is perhaps the most important substance in our lives. In the past 30 year quest for ever more powerful cholesterol busting drugs, the development of statin drugs by the pharmaceutical industry was an almost inevitable phenomenon. When two molecules of HMG-CoA combine to form the ubiquitous mevalonic acid, the enzyme, HMG-CoA reductase is required. This enzyme could quite easily be inhibited and suddenly a multi-billion dollar industry was born with the development of the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors known as the statin drugs (2). Whether Lipitor,
