You don’t need to be in alternative medicine to know that statin drugs are a bad idea.

These days, even the doctors who once gave them out to nearly everyone are waking up to the fact that cholesterol drugs do plenty of harm and very little good.

And now, “mainstream” doctors are turning to what was once dismissed as “alternative” medicine to bring cholesterol levels down — including the simple lifestyle changes that I’ve been advocating from the beginning.

It’s not exactly a radical idea, but I’m glad to see the rest of the country catching on — and some are even bragging about their results in places such as the Journal of the American Medical Association.

One recent series of editorials there was a debate between two competing mainstream teams trying to treat a hypothetical 55-year-old patient with high cholesterol levels who was otherwise healthy.

A decade ago, I’m sure they all would have said “statins.”

Today, a set of doctors who said they’d use that approach were practically booed right out of the journal — with one team of doctors correctly pointing out that they’d have to treat 100 patients like that hypothetical man for five years to prevent even a single heart attack.

And if that’s all that happened — a heart attack was prevented — maybe it would be worthwhile.

But, as Dr. Rita Redberg and Dr. William Katz of the University of San Francisco, California wrote in the journal, at least one of those 100 patients will end up with diabetes because of those meds and a whopping 20 percent will experience the notorious statin side effects (and other studies like the Jupiter trial have shown risk closer to 25 percent).

Those include serious and debilitating muscle pain, fatigue, memory problems, cataracts, and even sexual dysfunction.

Now, I don’t know if this means these mainstream docs have gone alternative or if I’m suddenly mainstream. To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me — all that matters is that patients are finally getting the common-sense approach to cholesterol control they should have been given all along.

Better late than never.

For the most advanced cardiovascular testing contact the Stengler Center for Integrative Medicine at 760-274-2377.

Nearly two years ago, an FDA panel rejected the Qnexa diet pill over safety concerns.

Now, that same panel has given the drug the OK, which means the agency itself will almost certainly approve it for sale soon.

But don’t be fooled by this about-face, because the drug hasn’t magically gotten any safer over the last two years.

Qnexa still comes with all the same potential risks that caused the panel to think twice back in 2010: birth defects, suicidal thoughts, depression, memory loss, attention problems, bone problems, kidney stones, and more.

Even worse, the drug can increase heart rate and cause heart palpitations — and the panelists who approved it admit they don’t know if those side effects will lead to heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems down the road.

But they went ahead and approved it anyway.

“The potential benefits of this medication seem to trump the side effects, but in truth, only time will tell,” Dr. Kenneth Burman of the Washington Hospital Center confessed to Time magazine.

Allow me to translate:

“It could help people lose a bunch of weight, and it could well kill a whole bunch of people at the same time. Let’s find out, shall we?”

I say let’s not — because if this drug’s history is any indication, its widespread use will lead to more problems than this panel is letting on.

Qnexa isn’t a new drug — it’s actually a combination of two older drugs: the amphetamine phentermine, better known as the “phen” in fen-phen (yes, THAT fen-phen), and the seizure drug topiramate.

It’s more of a side-effect cocktail than an actual drug — so much so that 40 percent of the people who took the high dose in a company-funded trial had to drop out.

Many of those who stuck with it were rewarded with weight loss of close to 10 percent of their body weight. But 10 percent for an obese person isn’t an achievement. It’s someone who’s just a little less obese — and it took them a full year to get there to boot.

What’s more, patients who take the drug still have to make diet and lifestyle changes and get more exercise. And if you have to do all that to get thin, why bother messing around with drugs like Qnexa in the first place?

Skip the meds and eat better instead.

Try a low-carb or Mediterranean-style diet, and the pounds will melt away as if by magic — and you’ll soon find yourself reaching in the back of your closet for clothes you never thought you’d wear again.

Ever watch someone with sleep apnea? It’s one of the most frightening — and unforgettable — things you’ll ever see.

One minute, the sleeper is snoring away. The next, nothing.

At first, you might be thankful for the quiet — until you realize the reason for that sudden silence: they’re not breathing.

Someone with apnea can go through dozens of breathless bouts per night and never even realize it — but in this case, what you don’t know can not only hurt you… it can kill you, too.

Apnea has been linked to everything from sexual dysfunction and metabolic syndrome to diabetes and heart disease — but now, researchers have confirmed that it’s not too late for people already fighting that nightly battle.

The standard mainstream treatment for apnea is an oxygen mask called CPAP, for continuous positive airway pressure. In a new study, 86 patients with moderate to severe apnea were assigned to either the real CPAP mask or a sham treatment.

After three months, the volunteers took a one-month break… then switched places for another three months.

When they got the real CPAP, the volunteers saw drops in blood pressure and cholesterol levels — including an average dip of nearly 20 points in dangerous triglycerides — as well as better control of their blood sugar levels.

More importantly, they also lost weight — and while most of the patients were battling metabolic syndrome at the start of the study, 13 percent no longer had the condition after the three months of CPAP, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But does all the credit go to that mask?

The researchers say they’re not sure — and I’m not either, because while CPAP can help get you through the night, the best way to beat apnea isn’t with oxygen — it’s with lifestyle changes.

And it starts with losing some weight — like the patients in this study managed to do. Studies have shown that even modest weight loss can end the apnea as well as slash your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Lose that weight yourself, and you’ll not only look and feel better than you have in years — you’ll sleep better, too.

Six years ago, the feds rushed the approval of brain stents for patients facing a high risk of stroke, claiming they needed to act quickly on “compassionate” grounds.

Today, I just have to wonder whose compassion they had in mind — because it’s certainly not those stroke patients: They began dropping dead so quickly and so often that the latest study on the stents had to be cut short.

And instead of waiting to get the results published, the researchers quickly posted them online to help spread the word to docs around the world that this “treatment” is more like a death sentence.

In the doomed study, researchers gave 450 patients who had suffered a stroke or stroke-like symptoms either the usual treatments to reduce risk factors or the stents, which are supposed to open narrowed arteries in the brain.

In the first 30 days after treatment, 15 percent of the stent patients had a second stroke or died — versus just 6 percent of those in the control group. Over the course of a year, 20.5 percent of the stent patients had a stroke or died, versus 11.5 percent of those in the control group.

The researchers say they’re still trying to figure out why the stent patients had such a dramatically higher risk of stroke and death, but does it even matter at this point?

The risks are just way too high, and that brings us back to square one — because there’s still no surefire way to eliminate your risk of stroke, and any drug or treatment that claims otherwise is selling an empty promise.

The best and only way to protect yourself is to focus on lifestyle changes, and not the ones your doctor has been recommending.

He’ll probably tell you that cholesterol has something to do with stroke — even the National Stroke Association puts it high on the list, right after hypertension and atrial fibrillation. But a study earlier this year found that LDL levels were only a stroke risk factor in men when they reached the sky-high level of 350. (Read about it here.)

Other than that, the researchers found no link at all — so whatever you do, don’t let anyone talk you into taking a statin to lower your stroke risk.

Another blood fat, triglycerides, can boost your stroke risk — but you don’t need a drug to slash those.

Fish oil will do the trick for you.

Along with omega-3 fatty acids, studies have found that coffee, olive oil, and a positive outlook can all lower your risk of stroke. I’ve got one more coming up next — and it’s something you might be eating everyday anyway.

Keep reading!