In the most persuasive findings yet to prove that the lower your LDL cholesterol, the better, a newly published 4,162-patient study concluded that LDL “bad” cholesterol levels of 62 were even better than levels of 95 in preventing death, heart attacks, and other cardiovascular-related problems in people with heart disease.*

This is big news to doctors and patients nationwide because all of a sudden the national LDL target of 100 or below for people with coronary artery disease does not appear low enough. Certainly, more research is required. In the meantime, “people who have heart disease should strive for LDL levels below 100, and reaching 80 is even better,” advises Robert Bauer, M.D., Medical Director at the Pritikin Longevity Center® & Spa.

“A wake-up call”

More than anything right now, the new research is “a wake-up call to everybody that treating cholesterol is serious business,” said the study’s lead investigator Christopher Cannon, M.D., Harvard Medical School, in the March 9th cover story of The Wall Street Journal.

Exactly how doctors treat cholesterol is serious business, too. In the study, published in the April 8th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, scientists put the patients, all with heart conditions ranging from angina to a history of heart attacks, on maximum doses of statins. Half received a doubling of the maximum daily dose of Lipitor (80mg), and half took 40mg of Pravachol, the highest available dose at the time. The Lipitor patients got down to an average LDL level of 62. The Pravachol patients’ LDL levels fell to 95.

Within two years, 26% of the Pravachol patients had either died or suffered a heart attack or other serious complications like bypass surgery compared with 22% of those on Lipitor.

Negative side effects

The problem is: large numbers of patients from both arms of the study dropped out, suffering from negative side effects of the massive doses of statins. Twenty percent dropped out after one year. After two years, 33% had left.

Tripling of liver toxicity

“Statins have side effects, and especially so at higher doses,” notes Dr. William McCarthy, UCLA School of Public Health, and member of the Pritikin Scientific Advisory Board. “When you double the dose of statins, you get a tripling of risk of liver toxicity. The side effects go up disproportionate to the increase in dose.”

Pritikin Program – “a much safer option”

“That’s why drug-free alternatives like the Pritikin Program are so important,” advises Dr. McCarthy. “For the millions of people in this country who cannot tolerate maximum doses of statins, the Pritikin Program – or a combination of low-dose statins plus the Pritikin Program – offers a much safer option for lowering LDL cholesterol to levels significantly below 100.”

Landmark research by UCLA scientists has proven that the Pritikin Program more than doubles the effectiveness of statin drugs. In the study, men and women took statins, lowering their LDL cholesterol on average 20%, and then supplemented their drug therapy with the Pritikin Program and achieved another 26% drop in cholesterol. The combined Pritikin Program/statin approach, in effect, cut LDL levels by 46%, and in just three weeks.**

“If there were stock in the Pritikin Longevity Center, I’d buy it now,” smiles Dr. McCarthy. “This latest research from Harvard Medical School makes a strong case that reducing LDL levels far below 100 provides optimal protection against heart attacks, and since many people do not want to take massive doses of statins to achieve this goal, lifestyle-based solutions like the Pritikin Program are looking better than ever.”

* New England Journal of Medicine, 2004; 350:15.
** American Journal of Cardiology, 1997; 79: 1112.