Here is a new article about statin damage to neurons, complete with photos!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0510150143.htm

"A picture is worth a thousand words!"

As the patents expire on this family of drugs, we will see much more evidence of their potential toxicity, and uselessness for the reasons they are really offered to patients.

Get your Lipitor pen now at Ebay and hold on to it... it will be worth a fortune in the future!

(Many thanks to Alffe who found this article and sent it to me!)

To learn more about statins just visit our PN forum and plug that
into our search.
There is a post to get you started:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post665830-5.html
This is a huge topic at PN because we have statin damaged posters who come to us there.

Mrs D, thank you. Are there any non-statin cholesterol lowering medications safe to take with MG?

thanks
kathie

Most people don't need to lower cholesterol. The major purpose of the statins originally was for severe familial hypercholesteremia.
Then the drug companies decided to create a new market, and continued to push lower and lower values on the rest of the population.

Twenty years ago the "rule" was 220+your age for total cholesterol!

If you read Dr. Seneff's link in my post above, and Dr. Kendrick's evaluation of the WHO data, you'll be surprised. Neither of them is paid by Big Pharma either.

If you avoid sugar and fructose and high fructose corn syrup, you can lower your cholesterol a little bit. Alcohol also is metabolized this way to raise cholesterol. That will give you a slightly lower total value. But there IS A REASON that there are NO NEW statins in the pipeline.
w.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
the video is long, the cholesterol metabolism about 1/2 way thru.

Dr. Lustig's YouTube called Sugar, The bitter truth explains this link to cholesterol.

I am battling multiple autoimmune diseases - RSD, MG, and Hashmotos hypothyroidism which is raising my sugar and cholesterol. I have a GI malabsorption problem (probably another autoimmune)and lost 50 lbs in 6 month and still not able to get my cholesterol down. It will probably take them a year to get my thyroid regulated. I have a long family history of relatives dying from strokes and heart attack even under the age of 40 so my dr wants my cholesterol down even lower than recommended limits. I have already eliminated the foods out of my diet and my GI is hardly absorbing them anyway with 30 bouts or diarrhea weekly. I am a single parent and need to get my numbers good so I do not think I have a choice but to treat it.

What about Questran, that is not a statin?

thanks
kathie

Questran and Welchol, are binding agents. They remove cholesterol from the GI tract. Quite a bit of cholesterol is excreted by the bile.

I'd look into fish oil or Krill oil, to help with the inflammatory autoimmune issues.

Low thyroid also causes elevated cholesterol.

When you eat a low cholesterol diet, your liver will make up the difference and make more. This is genetically driven.

Read the links I gave you... they are very good and done by experienced professionals. Heart disease and atherosclerosis are not caused BY cholesterol. They are inflammatory processes that happen at the cell wall of the arteries.

Lipitor and curcumin (a special form that is highly absorbed), were found EQUAL in preventing artery damage. The good curcumins are Curcugel-500 and LongVida brand.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?...l+atvorastatin
Of course the sales reps for Lipitor did not tell doctors about this factor... because they just want to up the sales of LIpitor.

There are many anti-inflammatory interventions that are safe.
Curcumin
antioxidants like grapeseed extract, astazanthin
Bromelain (must be enteric coated to work systemically)
Quercetin (this is Dr. Weil's favorite)

Vit C will lower elevated C-reactive protein by quite a bit.
C-reactive protein is thought to be a major player in endothelial
inflammation.

Mrs D, thank you so much. This is great info. I am already on calcium, D3 and fish oil twice a day. I was thinking about adding Vitamin c with the D and Krill oil. Now I think, I definitely will. My 15 year old daughter tested for low D, so it must be genetic. Her pediatrician told us to take it with Vit C for better absorption. My Dr did not tell me that.

I am definitely going to try the curcumin as well.

Thanks again
kathie

Thanks Mrs D for all your great information. It looks like many others will benefit from all your hard work as well. I plan to try some of the natural/herbal treatments first. I already take krill oil and vitamin D. I will be paying more attention to my diet as well. I will have my bloodwork rechecked in about 6 months and see how I do

Thanks to you all
Sandy

hi- I've been on Lipitor for several years; now taking the generic version. No problems with it at all. Good luck!

My PCP told me to use cinnamon and fish oil to lower my cholesterol and it worked. I put half a teaspoon of cinnamon on oatmeal every day for breakfast.

I just wanted to update this thread and see if anyone has any experiences to share. My Dexa scan showed severe osteoporosis with high risk of fracture in my hip. My PCP is referring me to a rheumatologist for treatment. I will likely need injections or infusions os mess to make a difference. Before my 9 wks of prednisone I was moderately osteoprenic.

This new development has me very concerned and a little depressed. I am beginning to understand how affected my life will be by this disease.
Sandy