From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
When I was in medical school in the mid-1970s, normal cholesterol levels were around 245 mg/dL. In the first edition of The Magnesium Miracle, I reported allopathic medicine’s “normal” cholesterol value at 180–220 mg/dL. Now, doctors advise that cholesterol should be below 200 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L) to be considered normal. Doctors don’t seem to know that magnesium, bound to ATP (Mg(2+)ATP), is the controlling factor for the rate-limiting enzyme in the cholesterol biosynthesis sequence that is destroyed by the statin pharmaceutical drugs.[i] Magnesium is responsible for naturally slowing down HMG-CoA reductase activity when cholesterol is in sufficient quantities. This is the same enzyme that statin drugs target for destruction while creating magnesium deficiency.
Most of our cholesterol, 85 percent, is made in the body – the liver, to be exact. A mere 15% comes from our diet. Yet eggs and butter have been demonized.
When Cholesterol Became the Bad Guy
History is very important when you look at the story of cholesterol. In 1913, two Russian researchers fed large amounts of cholesterol to a group of hungry rabbits. When they saw yellow gunk clogging the rabbits’ arteries, they leapt to the conclusion that cholesterol must be responsible for coronary artery disease.[ii]
It turns out that dietary cholesterol is harmful only if it is rancid. If you read the original article by the Russians, they had fed their rabbits “pure crystalline cholesterol dissolved in vegetable oil” to produce the cholesterol buildup in arteries. Crystalline cholesterol is an unnatural rancid substance known as oxycholesterol, which is not found in fresh food or in the healthy human body.
Udo Erasmus in his book, Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill[iii] wrote that “The cholesterol scare is big business for doctors, laboratories, and drug companies. It is also a powerful marketing gimmick for vegetable oil and margarine manufacturers. In the end, cholesterol will be exonerated from its role as primary villain in cardiovascular disease. The accusing finger points at ‘experts’ who concocted the cholesterol theory to drum up business by spreading fear.”
The Drug Treatment of Cholesterol
Enter Big Pharma. Statins are a group of powerful drugs that block a specific enzyme in the liver that helps make cholesterol. When that enzyme is blocked, cholesterol levels are lowered. That enzyme, however, does much more in the body than make cholesterol, so when it is suppressed by statins there are far-ranging consequences.
One significant side effect medicine acknowledges is elevated liver enzymes and disrupted liver function. If you take statins, you must have regular blood tests to look for liver damage. Stopping statins if your liver is damaged usually reverses the problem.
Another acknowledged side effect is statin myopathy (muscle pathology), which damages muscles and is entirely related to statin intake. Up to 20 percent of statin users can suffer muscle pain, tenderness, and weakness. But drug companies only report a 0.1 percent incidence of muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis) caused by statins, and therefore, they say muscle symptoms are rare. They ignore the one in five people who suffer their way through statin therapy, usually receiving other medications to suppress these side effects.
Interestingly, about 40 percent of the magnesium in the body is found in muscles, So when muscle is destroyed, magnesium is lost from this storage site, increasing muscle pain and spasm. Magnesium is also an indispensable mineral activator of many types of myosin (a large protein that forms muscle), including the myosin in skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle.[iv]
Unfortunately, several statins also contain toxic fluoride molecules that can irreversibly bind magnesium, contributing to the side effects of muscle pain and even tendon rupture. Another side effect is the inhibition of coenzyme Q10 production, as the statins block pathways that help produce both CoQ10 and cholesterol. CoQ10 is a fat-soluble antioxidant found in the mitochondria.
Many alternative doctors prescribe high doses of expensive coenzyme Q10 supplements if you are on statin drugs but forget to give magnesium. If you are not a vegetarian, you should be able to get enough CoQ10 from fish, beef, pork, chicken heart, chicken liver, parsley, and perilla. If you also take magnesium, your CoQ10 levels should normalize. However, what might work even better is to use magnesium as your first line of treatment for elevated cholesterol, so you don’t have to touch statin drugs at all.
Magnesium is a Natural Statin
Every metabolic activity in the body depends on enzymes. Making cholesterol, for example, requires a specific enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. Magnesium slows down this enzymatic reaction when cholesterol is present in sufficient quantities and speeds it up when we need more. HMG-CoA reductase is the same enzyme that statin drugs target and inhibit. The mechanisms are nearly the same; however, magnesium is the natural way that the body has evolved to control and balance cholesterol, whereas statin drugs are used to destroy the whole process.
If sufficient magnesium is present in the body, cholesterol will be limited to its necessary functions—the production of hormones and the maintenance of membranes—and will not be produced in excess. Remember, most of the cholesterol is in the body is produced in the liver, so if it’s not needed, the body won’t produce it – but this mechanism depends on having sufficient magnesium.
It’s only in our present-day circumstances of magnesium-deficient soil, little magnesium in processed foods, and excessive intake of calcium and calcium-rich foods without supplementation of magnesium that cholesterol has become elevated in the population. If there is not enough magnesium to limit the activity of the cholesterol-converting enzyme, we are bound to make more cholesterol than is needed.
The magnesium/cholesterol story gets even better. Magnesium is responsible for several other lipid-altering functions that are not even shared by statin drugs. Magnesium is necessary for the activity of an enzyme that lowers LDL, the “bad” cholesterol; it also lowers triglycerides and raises the “good” cholesterol, HDL. Another magnesium-dependent enzyme converts omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids into prostaglandins, which are necessary for heart and overall health. It is well accepted that magnesium is a natural calcium channel blocker, and now we know it also acts like a natural statin.
In their book The Magnesium Factor,[v] Seelig and Rosanoff reported that eighteen human studies verified that magnesium supplements can have an extremely beneficial effect on lipids. In these studies, total cholesterol levels were reduced by 6 to 23 percent; LDL (bad) cholesterol were lowered by 10 to 18 percent; triglycerides fell by 10 to 42 percent; and HDL (good) cholesterol rose by 4 to 11 percent. Furthermore, the studies showed that low magnesium levels are associated with higher levels of “bad” cholesterol and high magnesium levels indicate an increase in “good” cholesterol.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
