The information about this family of drugs is very abundant now.
There are two aspects to this problem as I see it.
1) Does cholesterol really matter? What exactly is high?
2) What do these drugs really do to your body?
This post is going to focus on #1. I will make another post to provide some information on #2.
The best place to start is with the doctors around the world who do not believe in the Cholesterol Myth. This list is growing as I type this, and finding information about it is easier than it once was. The book, Cholesterol Myths, by this doctor:
http://www.ravnskov.nu/uffe.htm
As you can see by his biography he is a busy man!
Here is a very good YouTube to start this subject:
I post it often, because it is simple, logical and gets to the point quickly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SSCNaaDcE
The doctor on that video is Dr. Malcolm Kendrick MD.
http://www.spacedoc.net/malcolm_kendrick_cholesterol
Basically there are doctors around the world questioning the Cholesterol hypothesis today.
So the first question we often see on these boards is "what is high?" and "should I take the statin suggested by my doctor"?.
These decisions cannot be totally answered here. It is a personal decision one should make after getting information on both sides of this issue. In US it is a RARE doctor who will give you the "down side" of statin therapy. That is because the drug companies have made so many billions of dollars with these drugs they jealously guard negative information about them. This is less so internationally and US doctors may be unaware of many aspects that international doctors understand.
There are some US doctors who are skeptical of statins. They may use them for treatment, but do so carefully, and monitor their patients well. But I think they are in the vast minority.
Dr. Jay Cohen MD relates a study on his website that explains how common it is for US doctors to IGNORE patient complaints of side effects from these drugs:
http://www.medicationsense.com/artic...cts012108.html
Also Dr. Graveline MD who is a former astronaut had significant problems with his Lipitor medication, and as a result he has written a book and developed a website about this problem.
http://www.spacedoc.net/
Also consider that there are lifestyles coming forward that lead to elevated cholesterol levels. This video is very new and from Univ. California medical schools, about the dangers of Fructose in our diet.
It is a long video, but in the middle when the speaker gets to the biochemistry of fructose... he shows how this sugar leads to elevated cholesterol, because of its metabolism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
So, to start off, I really suggest readers here deal with this first aspect of treatment. The links I have above are long, complex and give other links to MORE information. So I won't repeat that here. Please take the time to research your situation, and copy and take to your doctor the information that you want your doctor to consider before you start a statin regimen.
Edit -- 2-128-12--
The FDA finally adds warnings to statin drugs...may cause elevated
blood sugars and memory loss:
Quote:
(Reuters) - Health regulators will add warnings to the labels of widely used cholesterol lowering drugs, such as Lipitor, to indicate that they may raise levels of blood sugar and could cause memory loss.
The Food and Drug administration announced the changes to the safety information on the labels of statins such as Pfizer Inc's Lipitor, AstraZeneca's Crestor and Merck & Co's Zocor.
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from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/op...tin-users.html
More warnings will follow I predict!
Edit to add: This is a very interesting read. It provides statistical input on the real effects of statins:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/w...ally_work.html
For those thinking about discontinuing their statin, or whether to take one offered, please read this paper. It may help you decide and give you something to discuss with your doctor.
Here is a link to an abstract from a Government study on statin use causing PN:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread179295.html
Quote:
Conclusions
In this cross-sectional study, we found a modest
association between peripheral neuropathy and statin use.
Prospective studies are required to determine the causal
direction.
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new edit~~
FDA encourages lower doses of simvastatin (Zocor)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun...tatin-20110609
Quote:
When the FDA announced that the popular cholesterol drug simvastatin, brand name Zocor, would need a new label warning, it simply reinforced something that many doctors already knew: The highest “recommended” dose of 80 milligrams a day is so dangerous that it probably shouldn’t be recommended at all...
It’s not exactly news that Zocor, an older statin that was first approved by the FDA in 1991, seems to be riskier than other statins, especially at the high-end dose of 80 milligrams a day. The FDA itself warned about this danger in a “safety announcement” last year. At the time, the agency noted a study showing that about 1% patients taking 80 milligrams a day suffered from muscle damage. The same study included more than 6,000 patients taking 20 milligrams of Zocor a day; only one of them developed the muscle problem.
The FDA now says that doctors should no longer prescribe 80 milligrams of Zocor unless a patient has already been taking the dose for a year without any apparent trouble. But not everyone agrees that the warning goes far enough.
“We believe that the 80-milligram dose should be taken off the market completely,” says Dr. Michael Carome, deputy director of the Health Research Group for Public Citizen, a consumer protection group. Carome notes that high doses don’t seem to be much more effective than lower doses. “But the more you take, the greater the risk,” he says.
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Edit --Thanks to Alffe today for this link: 5-14-13--
explaining how statins damage nerves, complete with photos:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0510150143.htm
Edit 7-25-13:
Harm vs benefit for statins, new statistics:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1002533-6.html
Olsen at PD forum keeps up with the research and is a very
good resource for us too.
Edit 11-14-13 -- this link is a new thread with many new links about the dangers of statin therapy to lower cholesterol. Please check all the pages out, as there are very important points of view becoming available now.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread197080.html
One of our posters, Wide-O....found the patent information from Merck for the combo product lovastatin + CoQ-10... here is the link with the information:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1040312-4.html
This patent was never used, because Merck could not solve the solubility problem that CoQ-10 has...so they kept this secret for about a decade. But the information did leak out eventually. But doctors remained clueless all that time while statins were damaging people!
NEW ~~ Statins may lower vaccine effectiveness. This article is about flu vaccine:
http://news.yahoo.com/popular-choles...161903662.html
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All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.-- Galileo Galilei
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Weezie looking at petunias 8.25.2017
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