The Two Medications I Take For Preventative Care — Transcript

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1. 0:00I've been reluctant to talk about the
2. 0:01two drugs I take because they're not
3. 0:03recommended by the clinical guidelines
4. 0:04for the reasons I'm using them but as a
5. 0:07subscriber of this channel you've got a
6. 0:09right to know I just ask you to remember
7. 0:11that just because I take these drugs
8. 0:12doesn't mean you should as well the
9. 0:15first one is finasteride one milligram
10. 0:17prostate cancer is the second most
11. 0:19frequent cancer diagnosis made in men
12. 0:21and the fifth leading cause of death
13. 0:22worldwide but finasteride can help it
14. 0:25blocks the conversion of testosterone to
15. 0:27dihydrotestosterone and in adults
16. 0:30dihydrotestosterone is associated with
17. 0:31prostate enlargement and hair loss
18. 0:34because finasteride reduces
19. 0:36dihydrotestosterone it was hypothesized
20. 0:38that it could reduce prostate cancer
21. 0:40rates so in 2003 a massive study was
22. 0:42published involving just under 20 000
23. 0:45men half of them took finasteride five
24. 0:47milligrams so not the one milligram dose
25. 0:49that I take and compared that to Placebo
26. 0:51and after a seven year period there was
27. 0:54a 24 reduction in new prostate cancer
28. 0:56rates in the finasteride group compared
29. 0:58to Placebo which then sounds fantastic
30. 1:00then there was a follow-up study
31. 1:02published in 2013 where they could now
32. 1:05see a 30 reduction in prostate cancer
33. 1:07rates but that study highlighted a
34. 1:09problem yes the overall prostate cancer
35. 1:11rates reduced in the finasteride group
36. 1:13but there seems to be an increase in
37. 1:15high grade or aggressive cancers Plus at
38. 1:18that stage there didn't seem to be a
39. 1:19survival benefit by taking finasteride
40. 1:22but something really interesting is
41. 1:23happening here since finasteride shrinks
42. 1:26the size of the prostate a 2019 New
43. 1:28England Journal of Medicine paper was
44. 1:30published showing that finasteride
45. 1:31improved the detection of prostate
46. 1:33cancers what's going on here is a thing
47. 1:36called detection bias since the prostate
48. 1:38is smaller it's easier to detect nodules
49. 1:40or lumps that need further investigation
50. 1:42the authors then extended the follow-up
51. 1:45period again and in 2019 they published
52. 1:48their results after a follow-up period
53. 1:50of 18 years they could see a 25 lower
54. 1:53risk of death from prostate cancer with
55. 1:55finasteride now this didn't reach
56. 1:57statistical significance but we can see
57. 1:59a clear Trend which led the principal
58. 2:01investigator Dr Ian Thompson to conclude
59. 2:04that what we can say now is that
60. 2:06finasteride not only reduces a man's
61. 2:08risk of prostate cancer it is also safe
62. 2:10to use based on very long-term follow-up
63. 2:12in our study but before starting any
64. 2:15drug we need to make sure that the
65. 2:16benefits outweigh the risks so in terms
66. 2:19of side effects virtually all the
67. 2:20randomized controlled trials show a two
68. 2:22to four percent increase in reported
69. 2:24erectile dysfunctions and libido since
70. 2:27those studies A syndrome called
71. 2:29post-phenasteride syndrome has
72. 2:30officially been recognized where sexual
73. 2:33physical and mental symptoms often
74. 2:35persist after the patient has stopped
75. 2:37taking finasteride and while it's
76. 2:39exceedingly rare that this happens
77. 2:40patients absolutely need to be informed
78. 2:42off this risk before starting
79. 2:44finasteride personally I've been taking
80. 2:46finasteride one milligram which is the
81. 2:48hair loss dose for the past two years
82. 2:50and have had no side effects but the
83. 2:52trials looked at the five milligram dose
84. 2:54which is the dose that's commonly used
85. 2:56in medicine to shrink the size of the
86. 2:58prostate I may increase to that dose in
87. 3:00the future but for now since I'm taking
88. 3:02one milligram of finasteride and have
89. 3:04had no side effects that's the dose that
90. 3:06I'm continuing to take in an attempt to
91. 3:08reduce my chance of developing prostate
92. 3:10cancer in the future since I've started
93. 3:12this therapy so young again what I'm
94. 3:14doing is not in the clinical guidelines
95. 3:16so please take this with a massive pinch
96. 3:18of salt the second drug I take is for
97. 3:20silver Statin five milligrams and I've
98. 3:22only recently started it resurfastatin
99. 3:24is a medication that reduces the amount
100. 3:26of cholesterol that the body produces
101. 3:28specifically from the liver so why do I
102. 3:31want to do this well first of all it's
103. 3:33important to clarify that cholesterol is
104. 3:35essential for life we're needed for our
105. 3:37cell membranes for hormones such as
106. 3:39testosterone it's critical for bile
107. 3:41production so that we can digest fats
108. 3:43and the list goes on so no cholesterol
109. 3:45equals no life but we've known for
110. 3:47decades that all cells in our body can
111. 3:49produce their own cholesterol and organs
112. 3:52such as the liver can produce extra
113. 3:53cholesterol in case other cells in the
114. 3:55body need a temporary top up that means
115. 3:58we need a transportation system to
116. 4:00deliver that extra cholesterol around
117. 4:01the body and primarily it's transported
118. 4:04via the blood but this is a problem
119. 4:06blood is primarily water and cholesterol
120. 4:09repels water think of trying to mix
121. 4:11water and oil it doesn't work and they
122. 4:13separate out so the body needs to
123. 4:15package up that cholesterol into a
124. 4:17vehicle called A lipoprotein and now we
125. 4:20can transport that cholesterol so it's
126. 4:22important to note that the cholesterol
127. 4:23that we measure in the blood it only
128. 4:25represents a tiny fraction of the body's
129. 4:27total cholesterol and it's during this
130. 4:29transport that some of the cholesterol
131. 4:31gets dumped into the blood vessel walls
132. 4:33leading to blockages so what vehicles or
133. 4:36lipoproteins do we need to worry about
134. 4:38well as a broad simplification the
135. 4:40lipoproteins have either got an APO a
136. 4:43tag or an apobtech and we're going to
137. 4:45focus on the EPO B family because
138. 4:47efforts to alter the Upper A Levels
139. 4:49they've been largely disappointing in
140. 4:51reducing heart attack rates the APO B
141. 4:53family includes lipoprotein little a LDL
142. 4:56IDL and vdl what these refer to as the
143. 4:59the density of the cholesterol that's
144. 5:01packaged into those lipoproteins but
145. 5:03because the particle size of the APO B
146. 5:06lipoprotein families they're very small
147. 5:07they can enter into our blood vessel
148. 5:09walls leading to blockages so it's the
149. 5:12entire APO B family that we need to
150. 5:14worry about so you may see online some
151. 5:16people talking about small dense LDL
152. 5:18that that's the one that we need to
153. 5:20worry about that's incorrect it's the
154. 5:22entire APO B family including all of the
155. 5:24different versions of LDL that we need
156. 5:27to worry about in 2019 the European
157. 5:29Cardiology Society recommended that LDL
158. 5:32cholesterol levels should be lowered as
159. 5:34much as possible to prevent
160. 5:36cardiovascular disease and that's a
161. 5:38sentiment that's echoed by the American
162. 5:40Heart Association wherefore the Apple
163. 5:42Bee family lower is better but lower for
164. 5:45longer may be best those recommendations
165. 5:47are based on massive meta-analyzes where
166. 5:50they combine all of the relevant
167. 5:51clinical studies together which clearly
168. 5:53demonstrate that when we lower LDL
169. 5:55cholesterol we progressively lower total
170. 5:58death rates remember if every cell in
171. 6:00our body can produce its own cholesterol
172. 6:02so we don't need much cholesterol being
173. 6:04transported via the bloodstream even
174. 6:06when we drastically lower cholesterol
175. 6:08levels the human studies that were
176. 6:10analyzed in a 2021 European heart
177. 6:12Journal paper show that it's safe since
178. 6:14then a separate 2023 meta-analysis was
179. 6:17done again concluding that very low
180. 6:19levels of LDL cholesterol is not
181. 6:22associated with any Adverse Events and
182. 6:24it further reduces cardiovascular
183. 6:26disease so that's the benefit of trying
184. 6:28to reduce cholesterol levels now taking
185. 6:30a deeper look at the risks Statin
186. 6:32therapies cause a small increase in
187. 6:34muscle pains and this affects about one
188. 6:36to two people out of a hundred statins
189. 6:39are not associated with cognitive
190. 6:41impairment and actually may be
191. 6:42protective against Alzheimer's disease
192. 6:44there's also very good evidence that
193. 6:46statins do not affect testosterone
194. 6:48levels so what LDL cholesterol levels
195. 6:50should we be targeting well taking my
196. 6:53blood panel as an example even though I
197. 6:55have a great diet with low saturated fat
198. 6:57and lots of fiber I exercise regular
199. 6:59Lily and have great sleep I can't get my
200. 7:02LDL cholesterol levels below 1.9
201. 7:04millimoles per liter or in US units
202. 7:07that's about 73 milligrams per deciliter
203. 7:09now the clinical guidelines will say
204. 7:11that my cholesterol levels are
205. 7:13absolutely fine and that I don't need to
206. 7:15add in any cholesterol lowering
207. 7:16medications because I don't have any
208. 7:18other risk factors such as high blood
209. 7:20pressure diabetes or a family history so
210. 7:23why did I start with silver Statin five
211. 7:25milligrams well the clinical guidelines
212. 7:27base their recommendations on the
213. 7:2810-year risk of having a heart attack
214. 7:30but I'm not interested in a heart attack
215. 7:32in the next 10 years I want to prevent a
216. 7:35heart attack when I'm 75 or 80 years old
217. 7:37so if I can bring my LDL cholesterol
218. 7:40levels below 1.4 millimoles per liter or
219. 7:42in US units that's about 54 milligrams
220. 7:45per deciliter by adding in a drug that's
221. 7:47something I'm very interested in statins
222. 7:49also have an anti-inflammatory effect
223. 7:51where they lower CRP levels some people
224. 7:54online will argue that it's inflammation
225. 7:56that drives blockages in the blood
226. 7:58vessels and that we don't necessarily
227. 7:59really need to worry about cholesterol
228. 8:01levels but to me that's baffling when we
229. 8:03exercise we inflame our bodies
230. 8:05inflammation is a part of life and we
231. 8:07can never completely get rid of it I'd
232. 8:09much prefer to trial receiver Statin
233. 8:11reduce my cholesterol levels and protect
234. 8:13myself and if I was part of the one to
235. 8:15two people out of a hundred that can't
236. 8:17tolerate statins then I'd look at other
237. 8:19medications such as pcsk9 Inhibitors
238. 8:22bentadolic acid and acetamide there are
239. 8:25many other therapies to explore but why
240. 8:27did I specifically start with silver
241. 8:28Statin compared to the other Statin
242. 8:30medications well it's very cheap only
243. 8:33costing about 3.60 per month and it's
244. 8:35hydrophilic meaning that it mixes well
245. 8:37with water and doesn't get into places
246. 8:39that it shouldn't for example mussels or
247. 8:41fat I want to reiterate that by taking
248. 8:43both of these drugs I'm not following
249. 8:45the clinical guidelines so just because
250. 8:47I'm taking these drugs does not in any
251. 8:50way mean that you should as well and
252. 8:51it's crucial to continue focusing on
253. 8:53diet and exercise and there were three
254. 8:55massive studies confirming the best diet
255. 8:57which you can find out in the next video
256. 8:59here a massive thank you to do not
257. 9:01age.org for their ten thousand dollar
258. 9:03donation to my rapamycin study they are
259. 9:06a health research organization and to
260. 9:08benefit from the ingredients as well as
261. 9:09the 10 discount code check out the
262. 9:11pinned comment