Would you take statins for high cholesterol?

If I had high cholesterol, I wouldn't statin drugs, for two reasons. First, from what I've seen, the research is not clear that reducing cholesterol levels has any real long-term benefit with regard to heart disease. Second, the drugs themselves have a terrible side-effect profile. For those who decide to go that way, though, be sure to take Co-Q10 to help minimize the damage.

I had a heart scan done myself about 5 yrs ago, and would highly recommend the procedure. Although mine came back clear, I could imagine that having someone tell you that they suspect plaque has started to form in the vessels affecting your heart is nothing like actually seeing and measuring them.

Instead of statins, look into the Pauling/Rath protocol for reversing heart disease. Basically, Lysine, Proline, Vitamin C, Co-Q10, Carnitine, Niacin and Vit E.

[[MORE]]Arginine supplementation can also be useful. It helps by increasing nitric oxide release in tissues, which in turn promotes wound healing (such as in the arterial walls; plaques form in response to wall damage), and helps to dilate blood vessels. Dr Joe Prendergrast's work in this area is very interesting.

If the heart scan does show some calcification, consider having EDTA chelation therapy, which can help dissolve the plaques. It's a slow process (once a week for 20+ weeks), but it has a pretty good track record, particularly when the plaques aren't too thick. The most effective approach is by IV, but it can also be done using EDTA suppositories -- the latter takes longer and requires some care in administration, but you might prefer it to getting stuck with an IV needle. Used in conjunction with a heart scan, you can actually track your progress.

Watch your blood pressure. High BP can damage blood vessels; repeated micro-damage means more plaques.

Also, watch/limit your calcium intake and Vit D level. There is a bunch of interesting work in this area. Tom Levy of Vit C fame was planning a book on the subject.

Health-related risk management

As with all health and diet issues, when assessing risk and determining trade-offs, it’s best to look at the whole picture, rather than just one narrow piece.  For example, consider the risk of contaminated raw milk.  In the event that something bad happens, the resulting conditions should be quickly diagnosable and readily curable with antibiotics.  However, the same is not true for the more serious conditions that raw milk may help you avoid, such as heart disease or immune system dysfunction.

[[MORE]]This is similar to the “too much sun” argument and Vitamin D.  While it’s true that staying out of the sun will reduce your risk of certain skin cancers, those cancers tend to be among the most treatable and survivable.  However, the lower level of Vit D from staying out of the sun also increases your risk of getting the more serious cancers, which are not very curable.

The total cholesterol argument is also similar: you may avoid heart disease with low total cholesterol, but your average lifespan is also likely to be decreased (more death from cancer and other diseases).

More scientific support for Paleo

Those looking for additional technical / scientific support for a Paleo-style diet might enjoy the following books:

Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life
By Christian Allan PhD and Wolfgang Lutz MD

Dangerous Grains: Why Gluten Cereal Grains may be Hazardous to Your Health
By James Braly MD and Ron Hoggan MA

[[MORE]]Both are rich with technical citations (as is Taubes, of course).

Then there’s the Hyperlipid blog: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/, also written by a scientist.

One post that I found particularly enlightening:
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/03/cholesterol-within-nations-studies.html

It includes the graphs below (derived from published papers), which say that your relative risk of heart disease is much more strongly correlated to your HbA1c level than to total cholesterol.  How do you minimize HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin, which is caused by high levels of blood sugar)?  With a low-carb / paleo diet.