Dear Healthy Friend,

So you can't sell ice to an Eskimo, but we're all sales people somehow. If you go for an interview, you're "selling" yourself. When you have a great idea at work, you "sell" it to your boss. Often I have to "sell" an idea or promise to my daughter to get her to wake up in the morning. But our sales pitches don't normally hurt anyone and while we do profit or benefit from our sales skills, it's generally not at anybody else's cost.

So being a salesperson is a natural ability... But what happens if you start selling or pushing a product for something it isn't supposed to fix? Christine O'Brien reveals the new push at statins...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

The "great statin push" continues
Christine O'Brien

I hate sounding like a broken record.

But I just can't sit back and watch as the mainstream tries to apply statins to every medical condition under the sun.

Weakness, liver damage, peripheral neuropathy, even diabetes - the list of risks associated with statin-use just keeps growing and growing. But it doesn't matter.

They won't rest until they find a reason for EVERYONE to be on statins. In the past few months, I've seen desperate research applying them to everything from Alzheimer's to cataracts.

Most recently, I've seen statins hailed as a possible answer for prostate cancer. The mainstream is claiming that statins can lower tumour inflammation - and are even going so far as to say that widespread statin use over the past 15 years has contributed to a decline in prostate cancer mortality. (Or maybe that's because more men are choosing to proceed with caution, going for a wait-and-see approach rather than subjecting themselves to life-threatening extreme treatments...)

They're (thankfully) saying more research must be done before they can recommend that statins be taken for prostate cancer treatment - though you know pharmaceutical giants must be chomping at the bit to cook up some studies to throw in front of the FDA. But they say that men taking statins for heart health may already be "enjoying [this] beneficial side effect".

Yeah, along with all the other not-so-beneficial side effects. Somehow, I'm not impressed.

In previous studies some experts urged caution though, and for good reason. They pointed out that, while the drugs might lower the blood test reading for PSA, that doesn't necessarily mean the risk for prostate cancer has been reduced. And with all the other ill effects associated with statins, it's just not worth it.

Hopefully, we'll reach the same conclusion here. After all, for many men, prostate cancer doesn't warrant extreme treatment (and I count these dangerous drugs as "extreme").

Are essential fatty acids bad for you?

Q: One of my friends said she heard essential fatty acids are bad for you. Is that true?

Dr. Wright: In the past couple of years, there have been a few studies linking one particular essential fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) to increased risk of prostate cancer and cataracts. ALA is the major fatty acid found in flaxseed and flaxseed oil. While not all of the studies on ALA agree with these findings, there is enough evidence to be cause for some concern.

However, it's important to remember that ALA is an essential-to-life fatty acid and it's highly unlikely that nature would require us to have it in order to survive if there was no way around these potential negative effects. It's very possible that another nutrient or several nutrients are involved in the ALA-prostate cancer and ALA-cataract connection and that using more (or less) of these would "erase" any possible harm from higher levels of ALA.

Unfortunately, researchers rarely consider nutrients in more complex interactions. So it'll likely be a long time until this aspect of the "ALA question" is considered.

In the meantime, this does not mean that you need to eliminate flaxseed and flaxseed oil from your diet! In addition to ALA there are many other healthful nutrients present, especially in whole flaxseed. However, if you're a "flaxseed fan", it's probably wisest to consult your nutritionally knowledgeable physician about what quantity of flaxseed or flaxseed oil might be best for you. And since too much ALA can suppress "5-alpha reductase" if you're a man, you might want to have your "5-alpha reductase" enzyme activity measured. This is easily done from a 24-hour urinary steroid test.

Some doctors may also recommend a red blood cell membrane essential fatty acid test (preferable to the serum test of essential fatty acids) to make sure your ALA levels aren't out of balance with other fatty acids.