Over the last few weeks, we have sent several emails to you focused on heart health. Today I want to stay on that theme but focus on those of you who have been instructed by a Doctor to take a statin drug to lower cholesterol.

If you have watched any of my previous videos on statins, you will know that I am not a fan of this drug and why I refused to take it. But then, I am not a believer in long term medication of any sort unless there is a clear need for it based on hard clinical data, which is not distorted in any way.

Nonetheless, many health professionals and Doctors do not share my view on this subject. That is fine as it should be the choice of each individual what they take or do not take when it comes to medical intervention. I have come across many people who have decided to take a statin on their doctor's recommendation, and I respect that and do not try to talk them out of it. It isn't easy if you have a good Doctor to go against their wishes.

What is important for those people who do go on a statin is that they are aware of the multiple side effects of this. These side effects are due to the statin blocking a specific metabolic pathway needed for the liver to produce cholesterol.

You may or may not know that the liver actually produces 80% of the cholesterol in your bodies. Your diet only has minimal effect on cholesterol. If you eat more foods with cholesterol, your liver produces less, and likewise, your liver will produce more if you don't eat enough.

When a statin blocks this metabolic pathway and inhibits the ability of your liver to make cholesterol, that would be OK if that was all that it was blocking... but, unfortunately, that is not the case. It also blocks the synthesis of an important substance - Geranylgeraniol (GG). Have a look at the diagram below, and you can see what happens when you are taking a statin which also prevents the production of GG. GG is a critical fuel in the synthesis of CoQ10, Vitamin K2 - MK-4, hormones and most importantly, protein prenylation... referred to in the diagram as muscle repair. Because a statin inhibits this process, it can lead to muscle pain and wasting.

The good news is that the GG is further down the metabolic chain than where the statins work on cholesterol reduction. This means that if you take GG orally, you can help replenish the supplies and help your body produce the downstream benefits of CoQ10 production, vitamin K2 and most importantly, give your body the fuel it needs to carry out protein prenylation and thus help reduce the negative effects of the statin without impacting on the ability of it to reduce cholesterol.

Over the years, Doctors and Health Professionals, including ourselves, have advocated taking CoQ10 to help mitigate the side effects of statins. That is absolutely the right thing to do. Still, it only helps resolve part of the problem as it does not address the other downstream effects of which CoQ10 is the only one.

GG is needed for the efficient functioning of all of these. This was figured out by a brilliant scientist Dr. Barrie Tan. Suppose you would like a more detailed explanation of how GG works and how it can help you. In that case, you can go to our website where we have an interview with Dr. Tan, and also you can download a simplified white paper on the subject [click here].

oh... and by the way, it is also suitable to add to your supplement regimen even if you are not on a statin as it will help with your overall health and potentially slow down muscle aging as you get older.