People are much more environmentally conscious today than even as few as ten years ago. We go to great lengths to recycle anything we consume in our home. We separate our newspaper, cardboard, magazines, glass jars, bottles, plastic bottles and more to make sure we are not contributing more than our fair share to the landfills. We install energy saving light fixtures and energy saving fluorescent light bulbs to reduce our energy costs in the home.

Companies talk about reducing their carbon footprint in manufacturing and shipping of products. More and more things are being made from recycled products. It started with just paper and now the recycled products include inks, clothing and other items made from recycled plastics including decking materials. The aluminum can industry has long been involved in reusing empty aluminum cans. It takes ninety percent (90%) less energy to recycle a used aluminum can into a new one than it does to produce a new aluminum can from raw ore.

With all of our focus on keeping the environment safe and clean, we have found that our air quality has improved, but we still do whatever our doctor says when it comes to putting chemicals into our bodies to address any health issues we may have. Would it not make sense to look for alternatives to statins when we are thoroughly educated by the FDA requirements that drug manufacturers have to show all side effects when advertising a drug? Would you want to risk potentially permanent liver damage to make sure your cholesterol stayed within the approved limits?

Part of the problem stems from a decision a decade ago to lower the acceptable limits for various cholesterol measurements. Most doctors in the past recommended diet and exercise as the treatment of choice for most high cholesterol sufferers. This treatment could effectively reduce most people’s cholesterol to the accepted levels within a relatively short period of time. When the acceptable levels were lowered this was no longer the case and it was a boon the drug companies. We should try to be environmentally conscious about our own bodies and seek alternatives to statins that do not have the detrimental side effects but yet produce the same results. There is a component of sugar cane called policosanol that has shown great promise in human clinical trials to reduce bad cholesterol while raising good cholesterol.