Shadowing Practice: Statin Misinformation: Mayo Clinic Radio - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Welcome back to Mayo Clinic Radio.
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I'm Dr. Tom Shives.
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And I'm Tracy McRae.
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Statins are medicines that are used to lower cholesterol in the blood.
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And, you know, they're big sellers in the United States.
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I think statins are the second or third most commonly prescribed prescription drug in the United States.
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And for those with high cholesterol, statins work by blocking a substance in your body that's needed to make cholesterol.
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and they may also help your body reabsorb cholesterol that's built up in plaques on your artery walls.
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That's a good thing.
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You get rid of that plaque.
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Now, statins can prevent further blockage in your blood vessels and help reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke.
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Now, the reason that this topic came up is because a good friend of ours gave my wife, Kula, a book.
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and it was called The New Health Rules by Frank Lipman, MD, and Danielle Claro.
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And it's a New York Times bestselling book.
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Okay, it must be good.
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Yeah, well, you'd think.
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I started leafing through it and I got to this one chapter
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and the title of the chapter was Step Away from Statins.
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And it went on to say, if you're on a statin drug like Lipitor to lower your cholesterol,
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you may know that there's controversy surrounding these medications.
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And here's the clarity.
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Lowering cholesterol does not, it turns out, prevent heart attacks and strokes.
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We have been sold a bill of goods.
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The big deal about this is that millions of people are on statins unnecessarily, and statins cause diabetes, liver damage,
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nervous system problems, muscle weakness, and more.
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I figured we needed a second opinion from a Mayo Clinic expert.
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So maybe statins aren't for everyone, and they aren't without risk.
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The information or misinformation that's available can be confusing for consumers.
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Here to discuss statins is Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Stephen Kopetsky.
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Welcome back to the program, Dr. Kopetsky.
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Thank you, Tracy and Tom.
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All right, Dr. Kopetsky, we need the straight scoop.
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Can statins prevent heart attacks and strokes or not?
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Statins can unequivocally prevent heart attack and strokes.
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Now, where does stuff like this come from?
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I mean, here's a New York Times bestselling book, and it says statins can't do it.
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Yeah.
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It comes from, I think, the fact that statins don't reduce your risk to zero, number one.
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Number two is it's becoming very clear that lifestyle is extremely important.
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By that I mean if you are not fit, cardiovascular fitness, being active and can walk, if you do not follow a good diet,
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eating good foods, then the statin benefits are severely limited,
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meaning uh in one large study of people on statins not on statins
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if they weren't eating well eating like a mediterranean diet the 40 percent of people
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that were a lot of the bottom part of the eating
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structure so to speak got no benefit from statins whatsoever in reducing heart attack
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or stroke so you can overeat your statin is
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that right yeah uh so it's not it's a myth that if you're taking a statin, you can eat anything you want.
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That is absolutely not true.
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In fact, if you do anything you want, you may as well not take the statin.
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I mean, it really doesn't help you much.
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And if I have patients that I put them into two categories, one is people with disease.
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If they've had a stroke, they had a positive stress test, they've had a stent, they really need a statin.
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And everybody agrees about that.
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The second group are the ones that don't have disease.
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They never had a heart attack, never had chest pain.
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They don't have, you know, any narrowing of their arteries.
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Diabetes?
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Yeah, even diabetes, because so many people are getting diabetes now, that that's not enough.
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And those folks, I say, listen, you have two choices, either take a pill or change your lifestyle.
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And to me, it's a no -brainer.
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If you'll change the lifestyle, that's so much better than taking a pill.
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Are patients wanting to change their lifestyle and take a pill?
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Yeah.
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Oh, sure.
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No, they want to do that.
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And oftentimes we'll, we will go along that route and say, okay, you're, you're not eating correctly.
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You're not being active.
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You're still smoking.
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Why don't we start you on a pill to lower your cholesterol and also have you start working on your lifestyle.
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The problem is you can't change your lifestyle overnight.
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It takes months to years.
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Say, bring you back in nine months, 12 months, eating differently, being active.
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If you've really lowered your cholesterol a lot with the medicine and you've done nothing to change your lifestyle, then it's all the medicine.
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We say, okay, let's keep you on the medicine.
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But if you come back in a year and you've really changed your lifestyle, you're starting to be active.
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You're walking every day now.
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You give up the cigarettes.
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You're eating more fruits and vegetables.
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and you're getting better with your cholesterol, say, listen, maybe we can back off on this pill because you've changed your lifestyle so much.
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That may be all you need.
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Would you say
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that there are a fair number of people in this country who are taking the statin who really don't need
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it or shouldn't be taking it?
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Well, I think there are a lot of people
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that are taking it that are taking it to the exclusion of changing their lifestyle.
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They think if I take this pill, I can eat anything I want.
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And that's just not true.
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What are some of the statins? side effects that patients experience with statins?
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I mean, is dementia one of them?
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Dementia is not one of them.
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We've all had patients that have had problems remembering things, but if you look at big studies, it doesn't seem to be a problem.
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The big issue is two things.
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One is muscle aches.
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A lot of people get muscle aches.
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It's very interesting.
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If you tell people what they're on, it's a statin, they get more aches than if they don't know they're on a statin.
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But clearly, I've had patients, and I myself have been on six different statins.
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I couldn't wake up.
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I couldn't get out of bed one morning.
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I was so stiff.
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I thought I had rheumatoid arthritis.
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Is that right?
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Yeah.
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And so I stopped it on my own.
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It went away.
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I started up and it came back.
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So I believe that it's real.
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Number two issue to worry about is diabetes.
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Now, if you take a statin, you have a higher chance of becoming a diabetic.
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However, only people that become diabetics on a statin are the ones that were going to become one anyway.
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And they become it about three months earlier on the statin.
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There are people that have high blood sugars.
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They're obese.
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They have a big punch they have metabolic syndrome.
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Is it true that if you are diabetic you shouldn't be on a statin?
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No, that's not true.
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That is not true.
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If you're diabetic, your risk for heart disease is higher, so those are the ones we try to get on statins.
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Didn't you tell us once that
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almost 50 % of people who are in the emergency room with a heart attack have diabetes?
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Yeah, it's almost that high because it's just a huge instance of the population now that has diabetes.
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All related to obesity?
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Almost all related to obesity.
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And it's interesting, when a man becomes a diabetic, his risk for heart disease always goes up a little bit.
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When a woman becomes a diabetic, it really goes up a lot.
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Now, how do you explain that?
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Well, probably because we've got a bunch of middle -aged men with big paunches
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that are that far away from being a diabetic, and women are a little different.
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Ah, interesting.
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We've got just a minute or so remaining.
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I want to ask you about coconut oil, because it's gotten so popular.
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Not only you eat it you spread it around you use
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it for massage oil you drink
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it you whatever give us the lowdown on coconut oil is it all
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it's cracked up to be keep coconut oil on your skin don't put
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it in your body there was a study probably 40 years ago tom
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and tracy where they looked at giving people lard or butter
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or tallow you know fat from animals or coconut oil guess
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which one raised your bad cholesterol the most coconut really oh
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so delicious yes well coconut water is a little different it's you know watered down
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but i've had patients that come in
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and take a tablespoon of oil a day they said doctor
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i've heard it was good for wrinkles yeah well
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you get sort of greasy all over don't you all right there's the lowdown on cholesterol lowering statin drugs
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and also on coconut oil from Mayo Clinic preventive cardiologist, Dr. Stephen Kopetsky.
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Always glad to have you on the program.
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Thanks for being here.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Statin Misinformation: Mayo Clinic Radio”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: statin, cholesterol, lifestyle, diabetic, coconut. This video has 148 sentences and 1530 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:52. The speaker talks fast, about 194 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cholesterol noun | /kəˈlɛstəɹɒl/ | A sterol lipid synthesized by the liver and transported in the bloodstream to the membranes of all animal cells; it plays a central role in many biochemical… |
| lifestyle noun | /ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/ | A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group. |
| diabetes noun | /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz/ | Diabetes mellitus; any of a group of metabolic diseases whereby a person (or other animal) has high blood sugar due to an inability to produce, or inability to… |
| coconut noun | /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/ | A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed. |
| pill noun | /pɪl/ | A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication. |
| muscle noun | /ˈmʌs.əl/ | A contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement. |
| obesity noun | /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/ | The state of being obese. |
| dementia noun | /dɪˈmɛnʃə/ | A progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging. Areas particularly affected… |
| plaque noun | /plæk/ | Any flat, thin piece of clay, ivory, metal, etc., used for ornament, or for painting pictures upon, as a dish, plate, slab, etc., hung upon a wall; also, a… |
| artery noun | /ˈɑɹ.təɹ.i/ | Any of the muscular- and elastic-walled blood vessels forming part of the circulation system by which blood is conveyed away from the heart regardless of its… |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| crack noun | /kɹæk/ | A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material. |
| butter noun | /ˈbʌtɚ/ | A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk). |
| fitness noun | /ˈfɪt.nəs/ | The condition of being fit, suitable or appropriate. |
| narrow adjective | /ˈnæɹəʊ/ | Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| go along verb | To participate, cooperate, or conform. | |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. | |
| start up verb | /stɑɹˈtʌp/ | To rise suddenly. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I mean, it really doesn't help you much.
- The problem is you can't change your lifestyle overnight.
- We say, okay, let's keep you on the medicine.
- You're walking every day now.
- I mean, is dementia one of them?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been sold · they've had · you've really lowered |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was called · have been sold |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 52 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: myth /mɪθ/, arthritis /ɑːˈθɹ(a)ɪtɪs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dementia /dɪˈmɛnʃə/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, massage /məˈsɑ(d)ʒ/, prescription /pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: cholesterol /kəˈlɛstəɹɒl/, obesity /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/, controversy /kənˈtɹɒv.ə.si/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cholesterol, lifestyle, diabetes.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.