X-Message-Number: 16694
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 20:29:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: This may very well save your life

In Message #16669  wrote:


> Statins are not risk free and not everyone can take them. While I had no rise

> liver enzymes despite the itching I experienced, many people do experience an
> increase in liver enzymes (this is a marker of liver cell injury).
>......
> The first true life extension drug for human may be here. I urge you to talk 
> with your physician about whether a statin may be right for you. 
>
    I agree with Mike that anyone with elevated cholesterol should talk to
their doctor about low dose statins. Most people are very unlikely to
significantly extend their lifespan by lifestyle choices. I can see a
lot of people popping vitamin and mineral pills, trying to get a
little exercise, and eat healthy, and obtaining perhaps only another 2 
years of worth while life. 
    With perhaps the rare exception like Ben Best, to stay alive and well
to 90+ most of us will require cholesterol lowering drugs. Even if a means
to completely stop all other age associated deteriorations were to be
discovered tommorrow, atherosclerosis alone will prevent any significant
increase in healthy human lifespan from current levels. 
    The data on statins has been accumulating for decades, and may now at
last have reached critical mass. However the majority of doctors are
unlikely to prescribe statins, until *AFTER* your first heart
attack. Currently the best researched OTC supplement with statin-like
properties is Policosanol. I take 10 mg/day of this myself.
    As of 1999 the healthy life expectancy is 70.0 years in the USA. It
will undoubtedly increase above this in future. In Canada healthy life
expectancy is 72.0, in France it is 73.1, and in Japan it is 74.5
years. Incidentally it is 58.5 in Egypt, and 25.9 in Sierra Leone. (Lancet
357: 1685-91 2001)

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