FAIL: Merck's Statin Drug Found No Better Than Coconut Water

In a 2008 study published in the journal Food Chemistry & Toxicology titled, "Comparative evaluation of the hypolipidemic effects of coconut water and lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet,"¹ the beverage coconut water was found as effective as a popular cholesterol-lowering drug in positively modulating blood lipid levels in rats.

The conclusion of the study was as follows:

Coconut water has lipid lowering effect similar to the drug lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet.

Studies like this, of course, will never make it to the level of the multi-phased human clinical trials necessary to gain FDA drug approval, owing to one simple fact: coconut water is not patentable, and therefore will not provide market exclusivity or the return on investment necessary to capitalize such a venture. Consider that, on average, over 800 million dollars is spent upfront on developing and testing each new drug intended for FDA approval.

Statin Drugs: Defrauding the Public of Their Money & Health

When the water of a coconut is at least as effective as the drug that started the "statin revolution" in 1987 - Merck's branded lovastatin extract known as Mevacor - you know that the 30 billion dollar statin drug industry is based on a fundamentally erroneous premise: namely, that synthetic patentable chemicals are superior to natural ones, and therefore can be sold for usuriously high mark-ups.

Unfortunately the statin drug industry is not only defrauding people of their money, but also their health. As we reported in a previous post, the Journal of Clinical Cardiology in 2009 confirmed that these drugs weaken the heart muscle. Newer research indicates that statins may also be accelerating arterial calcification in susceptible individuals.

Moreover, we have identified over 300 unintended, adverse effects of statin drug use, with the top 20 listed below:

Beyond the "Lipid Hypothesis"

While lowering cholesterol is not a priority for me, as I am not a "lipid hypothesis" convert -- to the contrary, I see the clear harms associated with low cholesterol --  people who are convinced that lowering cholesterol and/or lipoproteins reduces cardiovascular disease progression and/or cardiac mortality should at least be well informed as to the natural evidence-based alternatives that exist to drugs.

After all, anything would be more reasonable than taking a metabolic poison to inhibit the production of cholesterol and/or lipoproteins on a cellular level. If we feel we must abide by largely drug industry-determined lipid guidelines, e.g. keeping LDL below 100 mg/dl, natural substances like policosanol or red yeast rice can "do the job" quite effectively. In fact, we have collected research on over 100 natural substances with lipid lowering properties.

I am far more interested in the broad range of factors that contribute to atherosclerosis than simply suppressing cholesterol/lipoprotein levels through the "by any chemical means necessary" approach. To view all the sections on our database relevant to cardiovascular health in one place, along with plenty of research on natural substances and therapies which contribute to preventing these factors from adversely affecting our health, visit our Heart Health Research Center.

¹ V G Sandhya, T Rajamohan. Comparative evaluation of the hypolipidemic effects of coconut water and lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet. Food Chem Toxicol.2008 Dec;46(12):3586-92. Epub 2008 Sep 3 PMID: 18809454