In this last part of the Stopping Statins Series, we will discuss the impact that stopping statins has on your body.
Are you tempted to stop your statins? Well, you’re not alone. Plenty of my patients have done it. However, be careful if you plan to stop your statins. I just had another patient do it recently. He regretted it. You’ll never believe what happened.
Another Example
Start here. I had a patient; let’s call him John Doe. He worked hard to reverse his insulin resistance. He dropped his hemoglobin a1c from the high fives to about five, and lowered his triglyceride/HDL ratio to less than one and a half – It was initially over three. Also, John dropped 40 lbs. All that from a healthy diet and lifestyle.
This happened. I ordered some lab tests for John. Suddenly, one day, I received several texts from him. He got his labs back before I did. He was freaking out.
He exclaimed, “this can’t be right. If it is, my veins and arteries are full of pus”. What happened you ask? Well, his myeloperoxidase (MPO) was over 5,000, and he panicked. I understood why he was alarmed.
Quickly, so you understand, myeloperoxidase is the enzyme that comes from some of the immune cells we call neutrophils or polymorphs. I digress.
Back to the story. At the time, Mr. Doe’s emotions were high. He was carrying a lot of stress. To explain, at that time, he was involved with a wedding in his direct family. Considering that, it was clear John needed some empathy and reassurance.
That said, I gently reminded him that myeloperoxidase is one of the most common false positive test and that his veins were not full of puss. He let out a sigh of relief.
How does the false positive happen? Well, if the venipuncture doesn’t spin the serum down and get the cells out within half an hour, there can be a false positive because it leeches out of the cells.
Here’s another way you can get a false positive. After spinning, you drop the pipette a little bit too far down below the serum layer into the white cell layer. If you do that, you can get a false positive because you get a lot of white cells. I suspect that’s what happened with John.
The Role of Inflammation
Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is important. In Brad Bale and Amy Doneen’s book, “Beat the Heart Attack Gene,” they call MPO the Joker. Their point is, everything else can look good, but if the MPO is high, then all bets are off. You can be toast. Patients get very emotional about this.
Just so you know, there are several supplements you can use for MPO. The most common and easily accessed is melatonin. Melatonin improves the situation when you have elevated myeloperoxidase. Regrettably, even when taking melatonin, the test can still falsely register positive.
I see a lot of follow-up inflammation panels. Whenever this happens, you’ll get a false positive and sometimes a true positive.
Here’s a scenario. You tell the patient to take some melatonin. There was a false positive. You’re prompted to go through the details on the patient’s case, then repeat the test; this patient is now taking melatonin; he’s going to have nervous few days to a week while waiting to repeat some of his lab tests.
Here’s another story. It’s about my friend who stopped taking statins. Well, it wasn’t until the labs returned that he told me he had stopped his statin three months back.
Turns out he had some elevation in his plaque too. Also, there was some increased inflammation. We started him on his statin again immediately after the inflammation panel.
This was a story style, not so much a literature review. It helps convey that cardiovascular inflammation causes heart attack and stroke. That’s why he went back on the statins.
More Evidence
There is literature available. I’ve done reviews on it. One of the latest examples is this article from 2016:
In this review, the authors went into the available evidence. After looking at over 30 articles available, they conclude that stopping statins is a relatively common phenomenon happening between 10 to 30% after 6 to 12 months of starting them.
It is essential to evaluate if the patients indicate statins, to begin with, meaning evidence of cardiovascular disease. When that is the case, there is plenty of evidence that stopping statins is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and Cardiovascular death.
The bottom line is, stopping statins can be dangerous.
If you found this article helpful and want to start taking steps toward reversing your chronic disease, Dr. Brewer and the PrevMed staff are ready to serve you no matter where you’re located.
To find out more, schedule a consult here: prevmedhealth.com
REFERENCES:
1. https://prevmedhealth.com/do-statins-prevent-heart-attacks/https://prevmedhealth.com/the-demonization-of-statins/
2. https://prevmedhealth.com/stopping-statins-is-it-safe/
3. https://prevmedhealth.com/how-to-test-for-cardiovascular-inflammation/
4. https://prevmedhealth.com/olive-oil-and-cv-inflammation/
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27221503/