Statins are more commonly known by the brand names Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor and will block an enzyme that plays a big part in the liver’s production of cholesterol.

Cholesterol is absolutely required by your body in so many ways. It is not the villain that they want you to believe but of course globally they made over 170 billion dollars pushing statins to lower your cholesterol. Statins are very dangerous drugs, and the studies have been pouring in over the last five years of all the major health risks caused by these agents.

The drug company sponsored “experts” want to tell you things like: “The value of statins in preventing heart disease has been clearly established,” or that, “The benefits of statin medications for most individuals exceed the potential risks.” But the real bottom line is that they may be helpful for only a very small group of patients (1%), clearly not the dangerous massive overprescribing that is occurring now.

A recent report by the Cochrane Collaboration team carefully reviewed all the statin literature and recommended that statins should not be used in Primary Prevention. Did you hear much about that?  Their damning new analysis found that statins don’t make any difference for 99.9 percent of all low-risk customers conned and coerced into taking them because of an elevated cholesterol level.

Primary prevention means you have a blood test and your cholesterol is 230 (or even 201). Your doctor tells you that you need to be on a cholesterol lowering drug or you will have a stroke or a heart attack. This careful review clearly demonstrates that is a lie – no, a damn lie.

Forcing these customers (and now making them patients with a disease process) has made statins the world’s best-selling drugs. There are millions of people who take these medications every day despite no history of heart attacks or heart disease, or even in patients with normal cholesterol levels.

Dr. Abramson, Harvard Professor wrote in the Lancet that there is no indication for any women to take a statin. None. In a French study, women between 60 and 75 had a 5 times higher mortality in five years when their cholesterol level was 160 or below, versus a women with a cholesterol level of 260. In other words, the higheryour cholesterol, the longer you survive! This study was recently confirmed in a 2010 Scandinavian Journal article. And now the recent study that prompted the FDA to take more control over the overprescribing of Statins, stated that postmenopausal women have a 48 % increase incidence of Diabetes when taking a Statin.

So why are people taking statins? I don’t know (well I do…and you need to follow the money), but as a heart surgeon I have a very good understanding of heart disease. I have touched coronary arteries and opened them up, and performed over 3000 heart surgeries and what causes heart disease isn’t cholesterol but inflammation.  One fact is clear and that is taking statins for elevated cholesterol is certainly not doing anyone any good and probably doing harm.

Of course, the drug companies have made 170 billion dollars globally while making you a patient with a disease. The new 2011 study carefully looked at 14 clinical trials involving more than 34,000 customers and found you’d have to give 1,000 of these people statins every day for an entire year to prevent a single death.

Please understand that your doctor is being told that that they must follow the statin, cholesterol lowering drug guidelines or else.  But, the data doesn’t support it and the doctors writing the guidelines are bought and paid for by Big Pharma.

So don’t be so tough on your doctor but do tell him you won’t take it, that cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease, and maybe that you’ll take Omega-3 fish oils, exercise and eat better avoiding carbohydrates are much better choices.

Taking a statin will not only increase your risk of memory changes and diabetes, but also make all your joints hurt, cause you to gain weight and may spiral you into depression. Just say no to statins if you are only being treated for a cholesterol number.

And to put the statins in the correct perspective, a recent study showed that owning a cat is almost 25 times more effective in lowering the risk of dying from heart disease than taking a statin!

I urge you to speak with your doctor and tell him about all this new information that does not support using statins because he may not know. And you can be sure his cholesterol lowering drug reps won’t tell him either. Thank you to the FDA for starting down the road to regulate the over-prescribing of statins and thank you to Dr. Nagy for educating the patients and physicians in Salisbury.

Robert Carlson, MD, FACS, Cardiothoracic Surgeon

Many other patients have told me that they were offered birth control pills for menopausal symptoms and refused them or threw the prescription away (the smart ones) and that they knew many of their friends were also taking birth control pills for menopausal symptoms.

I was very upset when I heard that because so many studies have proven that synthetic progestins used in women over 40 have an alarming increase approaching a 61 % increase incidence of breast cancer.  This would be comparable to me providing Krispy Kreme donuts, McDonalds French fries and a bowl full of cigarettes to patients immediately following heart surgery.

That would be crazy but so is giving menopausal women birth control pills or synthetic progestins like Medroxyprogesterone, Prempro or Provera.  We know there have been at least 12 studies in the last six years that have confirmed the fact that synthetic progestins cause breast cancer.

Unfortunately the doctors who are most devote in waving the pink ribbon supporting breast cancer research and breast cancer awareness are the same ones prescribing these cancer causing agents on a daily basis.  This is probably one of the major causes for the increased incidence of breast cancer. That’s just nuts and makes no sense.

A large French study with 80,000 women has confirmed that using natural progesterone, not the dangerous synthetic progestins, reduced the incidence of breast cancer as well.  So why not use natural progesterone?

Studies have repeatedly proven that natural progesterone improves sleep by at least 30 %, weight gain, anxiety, depression by 60 %, and improved memory by 40 % when compared to using the breast cancer causing synthetic progestins.

I don’t understand why this very minute hundreds of women are being prescribed progestins when your own natural progesterone will fight breast cancer, reduce heart disease, help you remain calm, sleep better and get rid of bell fat.

Stick with the same hormones that were so kind to you in your twenties giving you energy, great memory and calmness and are now gone. Bio-identical Hormone therapy is the answer, and synthetic progestins are the problem.

She opened her eyes from her restful state and asked, “Do you find this procedure challenging?”

I smiled, and reflected on my over 25 years of surgery.  “Well I have repaired ruptured aorta’s with patient’s close to death, and have performed heart bypass surgery on patients whom I brought to the operating room while doing CPR and had to “crash on the bypass machine” to save their life. I have reconstructed hearts that have been damaged by numerous heart attacks, so I would have to say that this procedure is actually not very challenging, but very enjoyable to me.”

“Oh,” she replied “How did you get from doing heart surgery on very sick patients to performing liposuction surgery?”

“I had performed over 4000 heart procedures but one procedure that most other heart surgeons didn’t like to do was to reconstruct chest walls after a patient developed a deep infection after heart surgery.” I replied. “I would reconstruct the chest wall with muscle flaps from the chest, and abdomen, as well as moving healthy tissue from inside the belly to fight the infection.  This was not a common procedure fortunately, but because I enjoyed the challenges of this procedure, many surgeons would send their complicated infections to me.”

“Now that sounds like a big surgery.”  She replied.

It is, and challenging as well, but the feeling of saving a patient’s life by repairing their chest wall and getting rid of a potential lethal infection made me appreciate the importance of what I did.”  She then asked, “Did heart surgery prepare you for liposuction surgery?”

I replied, “My in depth understanding of the muscles and fat layers in the chest and abdomen, helped me be a better surgeon to remove unwanted fat collections and to also perform this using minimally invasive procedures with small instruments and small holes that heal quickly.”

She was quiet for a moment and I thought our conversation was over and then she asked, “What is it called minimally invasive surgery?”

Minimally invasive surgery is performing a surgery through the smallest holes, and using smaller less traumatic instruments and incisions. This makes the surgery less painful, the recovery quicker and the procedure still successful.

I began doing minimally invasive surgeries in the early 90’s with removing many gall bladders and appendices, using laparoscopy instruments through very small holes. The procedure was more challenging and difficult than the standard procedures, but the patients recovered so quickly. I loved the challenge.

I later performed numerous lung surgeries through very small incisions, as well as aortic valve, mitral valve replacement, and bypass surgery. I enjoyed the minimally invasive approaches, and bring my extensive experience to using a minimally invasive approach to liposuction, helping achieve excellent results, with minimal down time and pain.

She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again asking, “How do you know where to remove fat and how much to remove?”

“I really enjoy performing liposuction and consider it art work with careful sculpting of the fat to achieve the most beautiful results.”  I replied. “ My experience sewing millimeter coronary arteries, bypass grafts that have to lay just perfectly on the heart, and the fine sutures placed exactly so that the bypass graft stays open for years. “

I believe creating a perfect bypass graft is an art form, and I challenge many plastic surgeons if they are able to perform such a meticulous procedure. It is truly fine  art when the graft lays so perfectly. And the patient’s life depends on it. It is my expertise in performing such meticulous operations that makes my ability to create a beautiful liposuction result possible.

“Thank you Dr. Carlson, “she said. “I feel so comforted and confident that I am in the best surgeon hands possible. So I’m not going to disturb your sculpting of my tummy anymore.”

“You never disturbed me. I enjoy talking with patients throughout the entire procedure.”

And she fell back asleep.

Menopause and peri-menopause are associated with the harmful loss of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in women and with the tremendous increase in total and abdominal obesity and hot flashes.

When a woman is having hot flashes, her brain is yelling at her ovaries to make the required estrogen her body needs to function properly. Unfortunately, the ovaries are no longer listening and the only structure in a women’s body that is listening is the fat cells in the belly, hips and thighs.

That’s because estrone, the estrogen of menopause is only made in fat tissue. So with hot flashes, your body is becoming dedicated to making more fat so that it can make more estrogen. I have seen weight gains exceeding 20 to 30 pounds over less than five years.

Regardless of what women do whether it’s exercising, eating less and eating smarter, they still gain weight. That’s because their body is primed to make more fat.  The good news is numerous reports have shown a dramatic improvement in stopping weight gain and abdominal obesity with balancing of hormones.

And best of all, without hot flashes women will get a better night sleep which lead to more energy and helps them to think clearer.  With menopause and falling hormone levels, there is also an increase in the enzyme which causes fat development in the abdomen, hips, and thighs.

Estrogen therapy reduces this fat forming enzyme which will decrease the enlargement of the fat cell thus decreasing fat formation in the abdomen, hips and thighs. There is hope.  Unfortunately not all estrogens will reduce fat.

The topical bio-identical hormone therapies have been shown to dramatically reduce fat whereas the oral estrogen replacements, the synthetic horse urine derived estrogens and the synthetic progestins have all been shown to increase weight gain and inflammation.

So if you are having hot flashes and night sweats, don’t buy more fans, change your sheets every night or hide in the freezer. Get some help with bio-identical hormones and help your body stop fat forming in its tracks. Balancing your hormones will help you effectively lose weight, sleep better, think clearer, and feel more energized.

Maybe you’re taking sleeping pills that leave you spaced out in the morning as if moving in slow motion. Losing sleep is critical resulting in loss of memory, ineffective work habits and increasing irritability. Starting in their early 40’s, women are commonly plagued with sleeping problems.

The answer is really quite simple. About ten years before menopause, a woman’s progesterone levels start to plummet setting them up for sleepless nights. Progesterone, natural progesterone that is soy-based provides improvement in sleep, dramatic reduction in irritability, headaches and a generalized calmness free of anxiety.

Natural progesterone is amazing. It helps you feel better, lose weight and protects women from heart disease and breast cancer. Don’t be fooled by its synthetic chemical substitute, the evil twin progestins, Prempro, Provera, Medroxyprogesterone or the progestin components of birth control pills as they do the absolute opposite. They make you fat, wreck your sleep, dramatically increase your breast cancer risks as well as increase heart disease in women.

You may not have known that. It’s that extra tummy fat that keeps getting fluffier. Depositing extra fat into your tummy and hips is actually blocked by Progesterone. Restoring your natural progesterone levels, will help you sleep better and feel less irritable. An added benefit is losing your belly fat.

The bottom line is restoring progesterone in your body is going to make you feel better all over and it is very easy.

It’s just replacing what was so kind to you when you were in your 20’s and 30’s and is now so low you can barely measure it. Don’t waste another night without sleep. When treating women struggling with sleep issues in their 40’s and 50’s, sleep undoubtedly affected by progesterone levels, one of the most common responses I hear after starting progesterone is ‘This is the best sleep I’ve ever had’.

Ask your age management doctor about all the amazing benefits of progesterone.

A Caucasian wearing no sunscreen can sit in the summer sun with 40% of their body exposed for 20 minutes and produce about 10,000 units of vitamin D. If sunscreen is applied, Vitamin D drops to nothing.

A darker skinned person needs 45 minutes a day in the sun. If you live above 35 degrees latitude, the body is unable to produce adequate amounts of Vitamin D from the winter sun. The only adequate amount of sunshine in Boston occurs between May and September. Other than that period, there’s just not enough sunlight for Vitamin D metabolism.

The person working in Chicago during the middle of the winter will get absolutely no Vitamin D from sunlight and vitamin D fights the common cold better than Vitamin C. That’s why cold and flu season occurs during the winter season.

You won’t get enough Vitamin D by eating a balanced diet either because Vitamin D is present in small amounts in a handful of foods like oily fish and eggs. Vitamin D fortified foods such as Vitamin D fortified milk and orange juice are a joke containing a measly 50 units of Vitamin D2 which is the wrong kind and essentially worthless. You’d have to drink 5 gallons of milk and juice a day.

You need about 5000 units a day of Vitamin D3 to help your body fight the battle against cold viruses. That amount also reduces breast and colon cancer, diabetes, heart disease and even weight loss and obesity. Closely tied with the obesity epidemic, a high percentage of our population is grossly deficient in Vitamin D. We have been told that the sun is bad for us and processed foods have minimal Vitamin D.

Vitamin D has been shown to be critical in the creation of stored fat. Providing your body with sufficient levels of Vitamin D will signal fat cells to shrink. This makes weight loss much easier when calories or carbohydrates are restricted.

You can help your body burn abdominal fat and lose weight naturally by incorporating adequate amounts of vitamin D in your diet primarily through extremely inexpensive Vitamin D3 supplements.

Vitamin D is critical in regulating weight. The dramatic impact on thyroid function, optimizing metabolism, the correlation between rising rates of obesity and vitamin D deficiency aren’t a surprise. Focus on optimizing your vitamin D levels and a healthy and active lifestyle will be in your future.

Dr. Robert Carlson, MD, FACS

Our body may create various substances to help counteract the effects of these harmful toxins. One of the most potent substance our body produces to neutralize these toxins is Glutathione or GSH. The effects of glutathione as the body’s defender are unparalleled. When our levels of GHS are depleted, there is an increased susceptibility to chronic illness, and the level of glutathione complex within an individual serves as an indicator to reflect overall health and longevity.

Within the human body, there are three critical functions of glutathione:

• Acts as an immune system booster
• It aids in systemic detoxification
• It possesses an amazing antioxidant capacity.

Glutathione has the ability to naturally shield our body from the long-term dangers posed by dangerous disease causing free radicals, while simultaneously removing hazardous waste and toxins from our body. So maximizing Glutathione levels seems to be of critical importance, however our body’s ability to produce GHS decreases incrementally as we age.

The benefits of Glutathione to the body cannot be questioned. It is called the Master Antioxidant because it helps boost the immune system as it removes excess free radicals thus gives resistance in fighting common diseases and even cancer. Intravenous administration of Glutathione has demonstrated numerous beneficial roles including the maximization of a powerful anti-oxidant, binding of toxins that accumulate in the body like mercury and lead, and it aids in rapid expulsion through the urine and feces.

But what has made Glutathione famous is its positive side effects on the skin. Glutathione when given intravenously causes whitening of the skin all over, reduction in acne, age spots and other skin blemishes — resulting in flawless, radiant and youthful looking skin. Truly a no downtime procedure, injectable glutathione only takes 30 minutes or less to perform and you can go back to your usual activities after the session. The effects of injectable glutathione are a lot faster compared to the oral one.

The procedure is relatively simple and involves injection of pure injectable glutathione directly into your system via the intravenous route. Each session takes about 30 minutes and there is no downtime. To achieve maximum results, Glutathione should be administered at one or two week intervals, although some request it be performed every 3 days to speed the results. To achieve the objectives of skin whitening, we recommend at least 5 to 10 sessions to achieve optimal results.

Benefits of Glutathione on Neurologic Disorders

Intravenous administration of Glutathione has demonstrated numerous beneficial roles associated with its amazingly powerful anti-oxidant properties. We now know that one of the most prominent features in Parkinson’s Disease or most neurologic disorders is the destruction of neurons by free radicals.

So using Glutathione to neutralize and reduce these free-radicals has been shown by Dr. Perlmutter to have significant benefits in managing neurologic conditions associated with inflammatory disease processes promoted by excessive free radical activity. The primary role of glutathione is not necessarily in preventing symptoms, but in slowing the disease by limiting free radical activity.