Nuts or drugs for heart disease?

Posted on Mon, 12 Jul 10

Statin drugs are cholesterol lowering drugs routinely recommended for prevention of heart disease however the best evidence to date suggests there is little, if any, benefit. There is however a natural food that can significantly reduce your cholesterol and lower heart disease risk for the price of peanuts, literally.

In the most comprehensive analysis to date of the effect of statin drugs for primary prevention of heart disease it has been found that there is no evidence of benefit for those who take the drugs. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at the efficacy of statins in people at who were using the drugs for prevention of heart disease, these people were at high risk but had not yet had an event such as a heart attack or stroke.  The analysis, which included 11 studies and over 65,000 people, found that statins did not reduce risk of death when used for the prevention of heart disease despite thier ability to lower cholesterol.

In contrast a report published in the same medical journal a month earlier found a robust association between eating nuts and lower cholesterol. A daily average intake of 67grams (about a handful) of nuts significantly improved cholesterol. Compared to statins however, nuts may not only lower cholesterol but reduce heart disease risk. It has been estimated that people who eat 4 or more servings of nuts a week have a 37% lower heart disease risk than those who rarely eat nuts. Nuts may be a tastier, cheaper, safer and more effective option than statins.

References:

1. Ray KK, Seshasai SR, Erqou S, Sever P, Jukema JW, Ford I, Sattar N. Statins and all-cause mortality in high-risk primary prevention: a meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials involving 65,229 participants. Arch Intern Med. 2010 Jun 28;170(12):1024-31.

2. Sabaté J, Oda K, Ros E. Nut consumption and blood lipid levels: a pooled analysis of 25 intervention trials. Arch Intern Med. 2010 May 10;170(9):821-7.