This is an appropriate time to put this link up again.

Dr. Cohen and others did a study on doctors and how a large number may ignore side effects from statins. I find this pretty alarming!

http://www.medicationsense.com/artic...cts012108.html

I thought there were studies that suggested that some statins were much more likely to be toxic for people with PN then others, particularly Simvastatin, which I had been taking.

If possible, I would prefer not to go off all cholesterol lowering meds. Am I wrong on this?

Some statins are more lipophilic (soluble in fat) than others.

Simvastatin is one of those. But all statins, are implicated in the side effects profiles. Simvastatin was chosen for the early trials for MSers, with the thought it would enter the brain, and help there. This was totally a failure, and the studies were stopped.

All statins block the enzyme in the liver that makes CoQ-10.

It is your choice. But if you don't stop the statin you will never know if your PN is because of it.

Given the tiny percentages of benefit that are now being quoted for them, I don't see people remaining on them once the push from the drug reps ends. Almost everything doctors and patients know about these drugs was Big Pharma driven until just recently.

Interesting. How about for someone, like myself, with cardiovasular disease. I am fit, am a vegetarian, at the correct weight, but have had two stents implanted in my coronary arteries.

With the statin, my cholesterol is low off the charts, but am concerned that if I go off the statin completely, it will go up. My cardiologist put me on the statin.

I really would like to eliminate the statin as the cause of my PN.
Wha do the latest studfies show.

You will have to look around the web, for your answers.

I will say this, there have been failures with most of the interventions for heart disease. Diet... The original Ornish diet was really big at one time, Dean Ornish, had 10 cardiovascular patients he put on his very vegan restrictive low fat diet. This diet was the cat's meow. It was heavily promoted.
And they started to die. Now he recommends a modification of that with flax oil and some salmon.

Heart disease is multifactorial. Inflammation, high C-reactive protein, high homocysteine, are just some of the other high risk factors. These inflame the insides of arteries, which then start to collect cholesterol as a patch. This will continue even if your cholesterol is low as is recommended. In fact there are studies showing elderly people die faster with lowered cholesterol.


This is Dr. Kendrick, again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SSCNaaDcE
You can find other older videos there with elaborate but unproven theories of how lowering cholesterol protects against heart disease.
On YouTube is a multi part video of a lecture Dr. Kendrick gave in Leeds, Britain: part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPYaVcXo1I

I've been reading for over 10 yrs and have watched this drama change and go on and on. The subject is very huge today, and there is no short cut to answer your question. Some doctors are very concerned about statins, and you'll have to spend some time reading them and their opinions, in order to decide for yourself.
There is no guarantee your statin will protect you from further heart disease. There is no guarantee that low cholesterol will protect you. People with low cholesterol have heart attacks too.
There are studies showing low cholesterol levels increase non-cardiac mortality:
from 2000:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10870365

more from 2008:
http://www.wellnessresources.com/hea...nd_death_risk/
(BTW Vytorin in the article contains simvastatin + Zetia)

Dr. Golomb MD is one to read to answer your questions.
She specializes in geriatric medicine.

Your situation is complex. And with 2 heart attacks behind you, I can understand your concern. It boils down to benefit vs risk in the final analysis. I could spend days, searching for you. I have already spent YEARS doing so. But in the end you will have to do more homework before deciding.

Thank you for your very informative response. Just to clarify, I never had a heart attack. The first stent was put in when my cardiologist went in to check my valve and found blockage, the second after I experienced angina, but no actual heart attack. I suppose I build up plaque because of genetics.

In any event, I will do the research, as you suggested.

IMO people who need stents are on the road to a heart attack.
It is only a matter of timing. So you are then in that medical pool when seeking doctors. The process is the same.
Scientists are still researching why
this happens only in some people and not others. There are many risk factors that are biochemical coming to light today therefore, besides cholesterol.

The only way you can decide is by reading what experts have to say. I've given you the names of doctors who appear to be independent thinkers, and reliable. And you also have to understand BigPharma too. How they operate and create a need for their drugs.

It happened with estrogen replacement therapy, it happened with fluoroquinolone antibiotics, antipsychotics and antidepressants for small children, Cox-2 NSAIDs Bextra and Vioxx, just to name a few. And it definitely is happening with statins. Newsweek even had quotes several years ago, in a summer issue from "experts" stating that statins should be in our drinking water, they are so safe. That comment is totally reprehensible! Well that quote is now thrown around when all the toxicities are being discussed today as a result.

So BigPharma works very hard to convince the public and doctors to use their drugs. We no longer are safe in that respect, and really should learn a bit about the subject in order to navigate this medical minefield. Our lives are very technologically complex. A consumer today has to know a bit about computers, in order to repair them and maintain them,
we need to know a bit about automobiles in order to understand
repair estimates--lots of fraud in car repair--- we have to know a bit about lots of things before we pursue a course of action and repair. Medically now, this had joined that concept. At least we have the internet, and can with some effort and time find out
the details that doctors keep from us or don't even know about!

And if your original cholesterol numbers were over 300... then you probably will need a small dose of statin. That is the bottom line nowadays. But not very many people who come here have been that high. Many are borderline, or normal. Dr. Jay Cohen in his cholesterol book, suggests starting at very low doses. And there are now studies on PubMed that with Crestor, 5mg 3 times a WEEK lowered cholesterol substantially. This is a far cry from what is typically given to people today.

http://www.amazon.com/about-Statin-D.../dp/0757002579
I read this book, and found it very helpful for myself. It is not expensive. So you might want to get it. It discusses very low dose therapies.

Here is a link, not sure if it has been posted. Dr. Mercola.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...-revealed.aspx


My OBGyn tried to give me the synthetic hrt to me. Gosh, no way. Thankfully I have experts that know about Bio Identical hormones and that is takes more than just estrogen and progesterone. My bio identical hormones help every part of the body, including stopping my many years of migraines. So good for eye health, brain etc. I am so thankful for doctors that actually do know how to heal, and safely!

No I never had HRT... I refused it. I knew what was going on from reading European studies showing terrible things with estrogens.

Here in US, Ayerst took their drug--Premarin-- with few users and within a few years it was #1 in sales. (just like statins are today). To keep it on top they ran studies endlessly and paid for them, to show estrogens prevented heart attacks (which they don't--they actually caused them) and prevented Alzheimers' and what not. When the independent HERS study was finally done here (based on the European studies) it had to be stopped before it ended due to deaths and other nasty things.

That was the end of HRT as we knew it for almost 2 decades!
It is still around highly modified... but I do not trust any of it, I am sorry to say.

Yes, synthetics and Premarin are awful. I would not touch that stuff. Horse pee, no thanks. The body does not recognize that stuff.

I have done a ton of research and had Dr. Sergey Dzugan and Dr. Rozakis as my doctors. i have thier book also. Dr. Rozakis is known for his research about eye health, macular degeneration and bio hormones. Dr. Dzugan is an expert on bio iden. hormones (and supplements) and more and more doctors are recognizing how compounded estrogen, progesterone, 7 Keto DHEA, testosterone, pregnenalone, thyroid, vit D etc. all work in every area of the body.

Just no comparison with the old stuff, I would not use that. I will never stop using my hormones. I get tested to keep them balance twice a year. It is just like being low in B12, D etc to me but everyone has that choice. Eye health is really important to me. I want them to stay healthy so I take supplements and hormones for them.